Susanoo's Stratagem
by xfang-girlx
Summary: He made her find him. He assured her more than he was willing to give. He did not gratify her once she had him. He made her fear losing him. He was the pleasure of her life but he was a deceiver. Light/OC
1. Lack of Knowledge

**A/N: **This story doesn't entirely follow the canon storyline. There will be some recognizable scenes but I will try and change them up a bit. I will be using Raito, not only do I think it sounds better but there is a use for it. There won't be any _Misa-Misa_. She annoys me. Lets just say she was killed along with her parents? :) All rules that you see at the beginning of each chapter belong to Tsugumi Ohba. Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 1

_The Death Note will be rendered useless if the victim's name is misspelled four times._

Raito walked into the shop a little nervously. He needed to test the Death Note one more time, just to make sure it was real. It didn't matter who he tested it on, they just needed to have done something bad. There was a motorbike gang outside harassing a young lady and he heard the name of their supposed leader, _Takuo Shibuimaru_. No, the man wasn't exactly a criminal but if he carried on like he was with that woman, he would end up being one. Raito used a magazine from the shelf to hide the cover of the Death Note from prying eyes. The lady's screams were getting louder as he wrote every variation of the name he could think of. At least one of them had to be correct. He stared at his Campanola watch, watching the second's hand move incredibly slowly. It was a present from his parents, for being the top student in Japan the previous year. The lady's screaming was getting louder, catching the attention of passersby, but no one was stupid enough to interrupt them. The gang members only laughed.

A minute had passed and the gang was still surrounding the woman. She finally escaped and Takuo got onto his motorbike to chase after her. Raito expected him to crash, or for something to crash into him. He did specify it to be a traffic accident. It shouldn't matter if he dies a little late, at least the lady will be saved.

Nothing happened. Takuo caught up with the lady and she screamed again. Raito couldn't bare it anymore. He was actually disappointed that the book didn't work. Was he crazy? It's not like he would just start killing people. _Would I?_

"Aren't you going to pay for that?"

Raito looked around but there was no one in the shop. He turned to the counter to see a girl around his age behind it. She looked familiar.

"Don't think you can just walk out of here, especially after writing in that magazine."

"I wasn-"

"Don't lie to me. I _saw _you."

Raito looked down at the magazine he had chosen. He internally face-palmed, out of the entire magazine shelf he chose the only porn-related one. He looked at the price and saw it was one of the most expensive magazines as well.

"I'm not even old enough to buy this." He placed it on the counter hoping she would put it back on the shelf.

Instead the girl scanned the bar-code. "That will be 1,300 Yen."

"You've got to be kidding me. I just told you I'm too young." Raito was shaking his head at her.

"To me, it looks like you're a bit lonely." She winked at him. "I won't tell anyone if you don't."

Raito wasn't in the mood to argue anymore so just got out his wallet and paid the money. He could have used the line, 'the Chief of the NPA is my father', but he didn't think she would care at all. She placed the magazine into a brown paper bag and wished him a good evening.

The night air was colder and he wrapped his jacket around himself more tightly. His thoughts were on the Death Note tucked inside his school bag. _Why didn't it work?_ He grabbed it out and just stared at it. There was a rubbish bin close by and he was tempted to just chuck it out. Obviously his first kill had been a fluke, therefore it wasn't _his_ kill. People can't actually die just by having their names written down. He couldn't understand his own reasoning, the book was useless, but he couldn't let go of the book as he held it above the bin. It was as if the book had a hold over him and wasn't letting _him_ go. Letting out a frustrated grumble he went home and threw the notebook in one of his desk drawers, to keep it out of his sight and the sight of anyone else.

* * *

She was going to be late. Hikari Shimizu, the 'weird girl', four-eyes, _late-bloomer_, was going to be late. This would just cause another reason for everyone to make fun of her. She had one more corner to turn but ended up falling backwards when someone bumped into her. All the books she had been carrying scattered and her vision went blurry. She began crawling on the ground trying to find her glasses, hoping they hadn't broken. Her parents wouldn't be happy to hear that she needed a second pair in the same month, though it wasn't as if they couldn't afford it.

"Here."

Hikari felt someone guide her hand to where her glasses had landed. She grabbed them and blinked a few times as her vision cleared again. Staring at a pair of legs in the school trousers, she looked up. A pair of brown eyes peered down at her. He made no move to help her up.

"You're the girl from last night." He stated.

"Huh?" It took her a few moments before recognizing him, he was also in a few of her classes. "Oh, you're the guy who brought porn. How is that going for you?"

He leaned down, trying to hush her as other late students made their way pass. "Would you not talk too loud about that? It's not like I had a choice."

"Of course you did." Hikari laughed. "All you needed to do was say no."

"But you wouldn't…" He pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath. His eyes wandered to one of the books that lay on the floor.

Hikari had already started picking up her school books. The guy was about to help her when she hurriedly collected the last book.

"Is that a D-"

"Diary. Yes. I don't like people touching it."

A second bell rang indicating that all students should already be seated in classes. Hikari was surprised because she hadn't heard the first warning bell. The guy stood quickly about to walk in the direction he originally was going, which had caused them to collide in the first place.

"Where are you going?" She asked.

"I have English first."

Hikari shook her head. "We have Calculus first… English last. Were you up all night _reading_?"

"No." He seemed to be getting really annoyed with her antics.

She decided to stop her teasing and just concentrated on getting to class. They both apologized to the teacher who just gave them a skeptical look and told them to quickly find a seat. The guy followed and watched as Hikari made her way to the back of the class, she was ignoring the stares from her classmates. He took his most favored seat by the window. In this seat he is able to look out the window while paying little attention to what is going on inside the classroom. There wasn't anything this class could teach him that he didn't already know.

* * *

Hikari sat outside in the cold wind, eating her lunch away from everyone who was smart and stayed inside. It was one of the reasons everyone called her weird. The other two nicknames for her were pretty self-explanatory. They didn't see the shinigami towering behind her, effectively blocking the wind. What they did see was the way her lips moved as if she was talking to herself.

"Yagami Raito… I can't believe I didn't recognize him last night."

"The boy owns a Death Note. We have to be careful. He saw yours."

"His didn't work though…" Hikari stared up behind her at the shinigami with her green eyes. "Why is that?"

"The boy wrote too many incorrect names into the Death Note." The shinigami paused. "Luckily he didn't do it on purpose."

"Imagine that?" Hikari laughed humorlessly, taking on a reporter's tone. "Most sought after guy in Daikoku Private Academy, Yagami Raito, dies of a heart attack. The cause of this calamity is unknown. Chief of the National Police Agency, the victim's father, as well as the rest of the NPA are doing all they can to find out what really happened."

"It's hard to tell whether you are being serious or not."

"Oh Ankh, you know I'm only joking around." She stood up brushing the crumbs from her skirt before making her way to the building. "I wouldn't really kill him, he hasn't done anything wrong."

* * *

Raito had been caught unaware three times that day. All the teachers just gave him looks of concern but didn't ask any questions. He was the top student in the school. They had no reason to worry about his grades. All day his mind had been on the Death Note and the girl that carried it. Any doubts he had about his own were erased. What was the likelihood of there being two in the same area? Maybe his was just malfunctioning at the moment?

He started getting the feeling that someone was watching him. He ignored it for a few minutes but the feeling wouldn't go away. He turned around to risk a look at her. She was staring straight at him, a tiny smile on her face. It was like a battle started, to see which one of them could stare the longest. The teacher had called her name causing her to be the first to turn away. Raito managed to catch her name from the teacher.

"Shimizu Hikari, can you please read out the next passage in English?"

_Hikari Shimizu, how did you obtain a Death Note?_ He finally knew her name. It would be a lot easier to get information from his friends now, without seeming too suspicious. He was still watching her as she stood holding the book they were studying in her hands.

"It was His sacrilege which caused Her to hide in the depths of a cave. Taking with Her all the radiance and forsaking the world to darkness. Of no avail did coaxing or their powers help, yet She was caught by Her own curiosity."

After finishing with the reading, Hikari bowed slightly before sitting back down. Her eyes met his one last time before she chose to ignore him. The sound of the final bell of the day brought him to his senses and he faced the front to pack away his things.

On his way home, Raito tried to question his friend without seeming obvious. "Hey Yamamoto, what do you know about Hikari?"

"Shimizu Hikari? Why do you want to know Yagami?"

"I bumped into her this morning." He admitted, scratching the back of his head. "I don't know that much about her."

"Well firstly, she prefers to be alone and I can guarantee you will see her muttering to herself, like she's crazy or something."

"Do you ever catch what she says?" Raito hoped it had something to do with the Death Note and not symptoms of Hikari needing to be taken to a mental institute.

"No. No one ever gets close enough to hear, all we see are her lips moving." His friend stopped, having arrived at Raito's house. "I'll see you at school tomorrow."

"Wait." Raito held his shoulder to stop his movements. "Tell me one more thing about her."

His friend gave him a weird look. "I have no idea why you would want to know, but last year I had her as a partner for Science. Despite what everyone says about her having a Police record, she's a nice person."

Raito couldn't unlock his house fast enough. He was glad that no one was home because he forgot to remove his shoes as he ran upstairs into his bedroom. Another reason was because he would be able to get this done in peace. Yamamoto had said the one piece of information that he needed, the only piece that was important. Hacking into his father's computer to get to the Police records was easy. Finding where Hikari's folder is located, wasn't. In order to not leave a trace he needed to find it manually and there were over twenty categorized folders, with hundreds of records inside each one. Luckily they were organized alphabetically.

His sister and mother had arrived home by the time he found her folder. Inside it were three lengthy reports. Checking that he had enough time before being called to dinner, he quickly copied the files to his own computer and then opened the first report and began reading.


	2. Childhood Memories

**A/N: **Thanks for the reviews! :) Now I know I said Misa wouldn't be in this story :/ but I just couldn't pass up this opportunity (trust me!). Enjoy! x

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Susanoo's Stratagem - 2

_The Death Note must not be handed to a child under six years of age, but Death Notes that have been dropped into the human world, and are part of the human world, can be used upon by humans of any age with the same effect._

It was her fifth birthday. Like every other birthday she can remember her parents were busy working, apparently the anniversary of their daughter's birth wasn't a good enough excuse for taking time off. Her babysitter had just gotten a call from her boyfriend so was inside, which meant Hikari was outside all by herself, swinging on a swing from her new playground in the backyard. Her eyes were on the ground when a rectangle-shaped shadow appeared from nowhere. Looking up she saw a book, just floating in the air. She started jumping up trying to grab it, but every time she got close to touching it, the book would rise a bit higher. Hikari started to giggle becoming very amused. Surely this was a magic trick of some sort that her parents had organized. Suddenly the book started flying, landing on the ground a few metres away.

As she walked over to it, she picked up a stick and poked the book a few times. When looking more closely she saw that there were no strings attached to it, or anything else. _How was it floating?_ Finally picking it up, Hikari examined the cover. There were funny looking symbols near the top and when tracing them, they were bumpy on the flat surface.

It suddenly grew darker as a huge skeletal-shaped shadow fell over her, blocking the sun. Hikari turned around to see what caused this but couldn't quite make out the features of this creature since the sun was creating a halo atmosphere around it. Getting out of the darkened area, she was able to see the monster properly.

Long black hair covered the scalp of the alligator skull, reaching to just pass its shoulders. It was much like hers in colour, but this being's hair was stringy and wiry. The snout was much shorter than of those she'd seen on some nature show and it was as wide as the rest of his head. The creature bent down as if doing an inspection of her. Her screams could be heard throughout the whole neighbourhood, a delayed reaction but a reaction nevertheless.

"Hikari! What's wrong?" Her babysitter shouted, rushing outside to see what the commotion was about.

Hikari pointed at the monster, not taking her eyes off it. The babysitter was confused because she couldn't see any reason for the little girl to scream. She saw the book in Hikari's hands and took it from her. Her eyes widen as she saw the tall being, danger seemed to emanate from it.

"Oh, God."

She grabbed the girl's hand and ran back inside the house, slamming the door shut. Hikari looked behind her and saw the monster handling a book similar to the one she found and was writing in it.

"Are you okay Hikari? Did it hurt you at all?"

Hikari shook her head at both of the questions. The babysitter sighed in relief before giving her a blank stare, dropping the book in her hand. She walked out of the house and continued walking, not once looking back.

"You are Hikari." A deep gravelly voice spoke.

Hikari turned around to see the being walk straight through the wall as if it wasn't even there, he was pointing at her. She nodded, still too scared to start speaking.

"I am Ankh." He pointed to himself.

Later that night, her parents came home to find Hikari by herself in her room, the babysitter nowhere to be seen. They started up a huge commotion. Threats were being made to the other parents over the phone. Their daughter had not yet arrived home so they still thought she was working. Hikari thought nothing of it. She was occupied with befriending her shinigami.

The next day there was a news report. A teenaged girl had committed suicide in a nearby park. An identity was yet to be released, but somehow even at her young age she had known it was her babysitter. Officers had come to question her about the incident. She lied saying how she didn't even notice the missing girl leave. Nothing had officially reported because of her young age, but notes were made.

* * *

Hikari was in class, chasing after a girl who had stolen her glasses. This happened every day so it was no surprise to her, usually she would just wait until the teacher found out and made the person give them back. Today was different. Something inside her just snapped. She was eight now and as she grew older the teasing started to begin. This time it was because she needed glasses to see properly.

"Hey four-eyes, watch where you're going?"

It was too late to figure out what she meant because Hikari had already tripped over the leg, hitting the wall in front of her. Her vision was already impaired and with the added head trauma she wasn't feeling very good. There was a familiar crunching sound of someone stepping on her glasses.

"Takada Kiyomi!" The teacher had walked into the classroom and just witness what happened. "Wait outside now."

With much complaining about feeling sick, Hikari was sent walking home since her parents were busy working. The principal gave her a spare pair of glasses. Her parents thought it necessary since her missing and broken glasses happened frequently. The girl walking with the shinigami would've been an odd sight if anyone could see him. He was naked, apart from a short wrap-around skirt, tied with a belt that also held his Death Note. His skin was covered in rough green scales, they looked old and dusty. In a way, not a part of him that she could see was exposed. Of course, the shinigami couldn't die with traditional methods anyway.

"Ankh, how does the Death Note work again?" Hikari asked as they climbed the stairs to her bedroom.

"By writing a name in the book, you need to picture them in your mind." He didn't hesitate in answering her.

She sat at her desk, taking out the Death Note from one of her drawers. "It's that simple?"

"Yes." Ankh stood behind her, looking over her shoulder. "What are you doing?"

_Kiyomi Takada._ "I'm making my first kill."

The bonus was that school closed for the next few days. Kiyomi Takada died from an unexpected heart attack while eating her lunch. At first they thought she had choked to death. Her father was working from home because no one wanted to babysit his daughter after what happened to the first one. An officer from the National Policing Agency turned up at the doorstep wanting to ask some questions. 'General procedures' they called it. All were about the dead girl, they had found out about the bullying. This apparently gave her a motive. Her father argued about Hikari's age and the officer replied that it was the only reason nothing seemed to fit.

* * *

Another three years had passed and her whole family had taken a trip to the beach. It was one of the few occasions where her parents weren't working and this made Hikari happy. What didn't make her happy was her older cousin, Misa Amane. At only thirteen, she was already a sought out model and had appeared in a few short movies. Her career started after the death of her parents.

"Hikari, why do you have to be so small?" Misa was on one of the beds in their shared room at the beach house. "You should be dressing to enhance your figure, not hide it."

All day Hikari had to put up with this. Down at the beach, while eating lunch and now when she was trying to read in silence. Misa Amane just wouldn't shut up, and it was really annoying her.

"I'm eleven and the way I dress is fine." _Just because you like seedy old men staring at you_.

"Good thing you brought the Death Note with you, eh?" All the years Hikari had spent with Ankh, he had gotten to know just exactly what she was thinking.

She got up and opened her suitcase, taking out the Death Note. Opening it to the page where the first name was written in.

"What's that?" Misa asked, barely looking away from her fashion magazines.

"A magic book."

Misa laughed. "Aren't you a little old to believe in magic?"

"Maybe you're right, but wait until you see this." Hikari started writing into the book.

_Misa Amane._

Less than a minute it took, Misa's eyes widen and she grabbed at the left side of her chest. "W-what did y-you do?" The model didn't know that this was her heart's final beating and there was nothing she could do about it.

The thumping ended along with her life and Hikari watched as the light faded from her cousin's eyes. Remorse tried to make its way into her mind but she made sure to remember all the time's Misa would tease her and push her around. Her annoying attitude just topped it off.

She calmed herself before leaving the room. _Let the show begin._

"Mum! Dad!" Hikari shouted, running outside with tears in her eyes. "Misa… she's d-dead."

All the adults rushed into her room to see if it was true. The woman covered their eyes immediately leaving to make sure all her other cousins were out of the way. The men called the Police, her father came up to her, resting a hand on her shoulder.

"What happened darling?"

"We were just talking and then sh-she just… collapsed." Hikari burst into tears as her father embraced her.

The Police arrived soon after and questioned her. She gave the same answer that she gave her father. It was lucky for her that they didn't search the room. No weapon wounds, no weapon. It was also good for Hikari that they hadn't seen a connection to her first killing. Being in a different city may have helped with that.

The funeral was two weeks later. The cause of Misa Amane's death was a mystery to the coroner. How could one so young die of a heart attack? Hikari acted as the saddened relative who was the last to see her famous cousin alive and everyone believed her.

* * *

Mathematics was boring. Hikari stared at all the figures on the board as if they were supposed to make sense. She wanted them to jump out at her and rearrange themselves to tell her the answers, but no such thing happened. The teacher always asked Raito for the answers, he was the only student who cared about grades. Even though he was a know-it-all, everyone still liked him. _He's not that bad looking_. She mused from her seat at the back of the classroom. She was fifteen now and in high school. Life hadn't been any kinder to her but she learnt to ignore it, along with everyone else. The bell rang throughout the school indicating that it was lunch time.

"Give my your lunch money." Someone from her class started harrassing another.

_Just ignore it_. Hikari walked passed, stumbling when the victim was pushed into her. "Who are you?"

"I'm Yu-" The guy on the ground began before she interrupted him.

"Not you, him."

"Watanabe Sudou, how about you give me your money as well weirdo."

"No." Those that were near gasped at her audacity to not give what the bully wanted. She left before she had a chance to witness his reaction.

The toilets were close, so Hikari didn't have to worry about being chased all around the school. She took out the Death Note from her bag, always keeping the book on her just in case her patience waned, like now.

"I thought you had forgotten all about it." Ankh said, he scraped his long fingers down the side of the wall out of amusement.

"You shouldn't be in here, it's a _girl's_ toilet."

"It's not like anyone can see me. So are you writing the boy's name in it?"

"Yes." _Sudou Watanabe_.

Hikari waited a few more seconds before leaving and she bumped into someone who was rushing passed. "Where's the fire?"

"No fire." The voice belonged to Raito. "Sudou just collapsed, he's dead."

"Oh, that's a shame." Hikari continued making her way outside to enjoy the peace and quiet for her lunch. She didn't see the way Raito looked at her strangely before remembering where he was rushing off to.

* * *

**A/N: **I think I might have been a bit too descriptive when it came to Ankh. I just figured that a shinigami is a lot more harder to imagine than a normal human.


	3. Thief

**A/N: **The third chapter, enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 3

_If you lose the Death Note or have it stolen, you will lose its ownership unless you retrieve it within 490 days._

"What you reading there?"

"Just police reports about a girl in some of my classe-" He stopped talking, not only realising his mistake of admitting something like this but he was sure he had locked the door to his room.

The voice had come out of nowhere and Raito froze with shock. He turned around slowly, not sure what to expect. He definitely wasn't expecting to see some tall and lanky _thing_, it didn't even look human. He yelled out, falling off his chair and onto the ground, hurting his rump while it laughed at his reaction.

"What? Never seen a shinigami before?"

"Hey Raito! Are you okay in there?" His sister Sayu called from the other side of the door.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Raito replied as Sayu tried to enter but found the door locked.

"This is funny." She started banging on the door. "Hey, open up!"

"Just give me a second." He made sure everything was tidy and forgot about the shinigami before letting Sayu in. He cringed as she walked towards the otherworldly being and because she had no reaction, he figured she couldn't see it. "What do you want?"

She walked straight through the shinigami as if he wasn't there. "Hey, what's this?" She pointed to the Death Note on his desk.

"Mine." Both residents of the room answered, Raito rushed over to it before Sayu had the chance to touch it.

"It's my diary." He shoved it into one of the drawers of his desk. "You need anything?"

"Oh, I just wanted to tell you that I'll probably need help with some homework tomorrow, we have some maths test coming up and I just don't understand algebra one bit." She walked towards the door. "I'm going to sleep now, good night."

"Good night." Raito replied, he then whispered to the shinigami when alone in the room again. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Ryuk and that," he pointed in the general direction of the Death Note inside his desk, "is mine."

Raito was frustrated at the way this Ryuk guy just ignored his question. "Can you fix it? It doesn't work anymore." He gave the shinigami the book.

"You made it useless?" Ryuk laughed at him, flipping through the pages. "What a bore."

Ryuk went over to the bed and laid on it, holding his head up with a hand. Raito watched him for a bit before closing out of the reports he was reading about Hikari, deleting them to get rid of the evidence.

"There's another Death Note."

"Oh?" The shinigami sat up. "Are you going to steal it?"

"Would I be able to use it?" Raito asked.

"Sure." Ryuk sat up a widened smile on his features. "You won't own it but it will work unlike this piece of junk. What a waste."

* * *

"Ankh!" Hikari screamed throughout the house, she was glad that her parents were still at work. She had a hard time not talking to Ankh even when they were present. "Ankh! Where are you?"

"I'm in the kitchen." A muffled voice replied. "There's no more m-"

"That's because you keep drinking it all." She interrupted the shinigami as he closed the fridge door, milk dripped from the sides of his jaw and an empty bottle in his hand. "Do you know where the Death Note is?"

"The boy stole it."

Hikari opened her mouth to speak but then paused. "Wait, Raito stole it?"

Ankh nodded, staying silent and opening the doors to the pantry looking for something to eat.

"How come you're just telling me this now?" She placed her school bag on the counter.

He just shrugged, filling his mouth with a handful of chocolate cookies. "He had a shinigami with him, it's not like you were going to use it any time soon."

"You don't know that." Hikari took the packet of biscuits away from him before scolding. "No wonder I get in trouble, you are such a pig!"

"Actually, the animal I resemble most is-"

"Not relevant to this conversation." She interrupted him putting the food away and blocking the pantry for his use.

Her parents would always feed her cookies and milk for afternoon tea and when she was younger, Hikari offered some to the shinigami one day because he would always just sit there watching her. He took an instant liking to them and would steal them from her every day since. She didn't mind too much because she wasn't fond of milk. It would bother her that Ankh would pick out all the good cookies, leaving her with the crumbly ones. As she grew older the afternoon tea would stop and Ankh resorted to stealing from the kitchen, luckily only when her parents weren't home.

"We're leaving Ankh."

"Where are we going?" He asked, following her out the door.

Hikari turned around smiling at him while walking backwards. "We're going to get my Death Note back."

It didn't take long to walk to Raito's house. He only lived a few streets away. Ankh walked beside her, he preferred using his feet than wings. It was strange because when he told her stories about the other shinigami. She got the impression that they were lazy. Hikari asked him about this other shinigami that was following Raito, all Ankh would give her was a name. _Ryuk_.

She ignored the doorbell by the gate and went straight up to the door, knocking on it. Waiting for a few seconds, a younger looking girl answered the door, mouth filled with chips.

"Hello." Hikari bowed. "I'm Raito's girlfriend, Hikari."

The girl just stared at her for a few minutes, forgetting about the food in her mouth. "I didn't know my older brother had a girlfriend."

"Oh, he just asked me out recently." Hikari held up her school bag. "He promised me a study date."

"I'll just get him for you." She turned and ran up the stairs yelling. "Raito! Your girlfriend is here."

A door could be heard opening. "My girlwhat?" He came to the door and stopped when he saw Hikari standing there gazing at her shoes, he had never seen her out of uniform before and she looked weird.

Lifting her head, Hikari smiled and waved at him as he blinked his eyes a few time, as if checking she was really there. "Babe, you didn't forget did you?"

Raito rushed to grab her hand, pulling her up the staircase. "Sayu, don't tell Mum, it's complicated."

"Your secret is safe with me!" Sayu called out, going back to the living area and to watch the latest episode of a television show features the good looking pop-star teen, Hideki Ryuuga.

He pushed Hikari into his room and was close to slamming his door shut before locking it. She sat on his bed, not wanting to disrupt his throne-like computer chair.

"What was that about?" He asked in a harsh whisper.

"Is the idea of being my boyfriend that horrific to you?" She frowned at him, she stood up. "I was only joking. I can go down there and set things straight."

"Don't bother, she wouldn't believe you."

"I want my Death Note back." Hikari held out her hand, though she expected him to do nothing.

"No." Raito went to sit in his chair and opened up the aforementioned book, writing in it while looking back up at his computer screen. "I have more use of it than you do, I can just write your name in it to get rid of you."

Hikari laughed, not the reaction he thought she would give. "Try it, find out if it works."

"So your name is an alias?"

"It could be." She laughed again. The noise was irritating to his ears. "Maybe I'm just being suicidal?"

He shook his head and continued writing names from the screen. He stayed silent for a long time and all she could do was look around, until she noticed a similar look book on his desk.

"Is this…" Hikari grabbed it before Raito had a chance to stop her. "…_your_ Death Note?"

"Yes." He spoke, getting rather annoyed at her, though it was his fault she was here. He knew she would've come as soon as she found her Death Note missing. "It doesn't work."

"Wow." Her attention was on the shinigami that had been resting on the bed right behind her and she had no idea at the time. Leaning in closer she got a real good look at him. "You must be Ryuk. You're just as ugly as Ankh over here."

"You're not too bad for a human, a bit on the short side though." The lanky shinigami laughed at Hikari, he looked over at her shinigami. "So this is where you've been all this time Ankh? You had been gone for a long time, was starting to miss you."

Ankh gave no sign that he heard anything that Ryuk had said.

"How about we share it?" Hikari gave the proposition to Raito as Ryuk tried to get Ankh to have a conversation with him. "You have it this week and I have it the next week."

He looked at her sceptically, unsure whether to trust her or not. "What will you do with it on your week?"

"Obviously nothing, we can't have people getting suspicious of all the dead bodies."

"A week each?" He was still hesitant about making the deal, but it was better than not having the Death Note at all. "Okay."

She held out her hand. "Let's shake on it."

Raito rolled his eyes at her but held her hand in a firm grip.

"How about we kiss, to seal the deal even further?" Hikari jokingly fluttered her eyelashes at him.

"No."

"You're no fun, _babe_." She pretended to pout. "Come on Ankh, looks like we're going home empty handed."

* * *

Hikari was almost falling asleep, waiting for the teacher to arrive. Someone sat down at the desk beside her. She didn't pay any attention to it because there were always students moving around the room. All she wanted was for the day to end, but it wasn't even close to finishing.

The person leaned over and whispered into her ear. "The Death Note is yours after school."

She jumped, looking at Raito and then over to where he is usually seated, before turning back at him. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm attending class."

"That's not what I meant." Hikari pointed over to his normal seat. "You've been ignoring me for the whole week and now the star pupil sits at the back?"

"It's not like my learning will suffer." Raito got out all of his school equipment for the class. "Anyway I thought maybe you would want some help, you're _just_ passing your classes."

She narrowed her eyes at him suspiciously. "How much do you know about me?"

"Enough to know that if Shimizu Hikari is an alias, there is nothing to say otherwise." He lowered his voice when the teacher arrived. "Also at the rate you're going, there's no way you will get into To-Oh. You do still want to study law don't you?"

Hikari nodded. "There are other universities that will accept me other than To-Oh."

"That is true, but I'm going to To-Oh and that means you will too."

Hikari just rolled her eyes, obviously being controlling was part of his nature.

She pretended to not notice him for the rest of the day. In the classes they had together he would sit with her at the back. This got her a lot more attention than she could care for, from all the other students. Raito even ate lunch with her outside. As people walked passed her in the halls she could hear all of their whispering, both from the girls and guys. All were wondering what he saw in someone like her. Hikari slammed her locker a bit louder than expected, more strange looks were sent her way. Rumours were coming into existence, and each one was just getting more and more surreal.

"Urgh, don't sit next to me anymore." Hikari told Raito as they walked to his house. "If I hear another… '_maybe_ she's holding his family as prisoners and to set them free he has to date her', I'm going to puke."

"I thought you were my girlfriend?" Raito said in a patronizing tone. "This is what couples do."

She snorted. _Oh so now he's okay with the idea._ "We don't go out."

They got to his house but no one was home. Hikari liked this, she could just come in and grab the Death Note, then leave. No complications. No secretive winks and giggles which were sure to come from his younger sister either. His room was no different from the last time she was in it, always being so neat. You would think he was suffering from OCD. No healthy teenage boy _wanted_ his room to be so clean. Or did his mother clean it for him? If Hikari tried to find the porn magazine, she could leave it in a blatantly obvious place to see what would happen. Raito would probably stop her though.

"Here." He handed her the Death Note.

She flipped through it, noticing how pages will just filled up with lists of names. "You've been busy. Why have you written so many names?"

Raito sat in his chair and turned it around. He certainly was close to looking like a king on his throne.

"Here we go." Ryuk mumbled from behind her.

"There is so much evil in this world, don't you agree?"

"Yes…" She had no idea where Raito was going with this, so just thought it best to listen.

"It needs to be erased and in order to create a better place for everyone, criminals need to die. I…" He purposely paused for dramatic effect, "will be the God of this new world."

Hikari tried her best not to let a giggle escape, to the point where her cheeks were puffed out and tears were leaking from her eyes. "They're pretty big plans, don't you think?"

"I will make it happen." He scolded at her insolence.

"Ryuk," Ankh whispered to the other shinigami. "Ten apples he doesn't succeed."

"I don't care whether he does or doesn't." Ryuk scratched his chin in thought. "But, a ten apple bet is quite appealing… it's on. What do you want if you win?"

"Don't worry about it Ryuk." Hikari joined in. "If Ankh wins I know just what to get him."

"I will succeed in creating a better world."

* * *

**A/N: **I had trouble trying to find a way for Raito's speech not to sound cheesy, but I figured if heard in Brad Swaile's voice it would sound much better. :D


	4. Insurance

**A/N: **Would have to be my quickest update so far! This just came tumbling out. xD Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 4

_The Death Note will not take effect if you write a specific victims name using several different pages._

Hikari was sitting at the end of Raito's bed, flipping through the Death Note bored. He was at his computer desk finishing off all the homework that had been set for that day. Every few seconds he would look over at her. She got the impression that he was irritated at her. Was there a reason for him to want her to just leave? Both shinigamis were leaning against the wall, also bored. She flipped the book to the back cover when she noticed something unusual. There were torn bits of paper near the centre. Pages had been removed from the Death Note.

"Raito?" She asked lightly, thinking he was too emerged with his school work.

He turned in his chair to face her, knowing she had discovered what he hoped she would overlook. "What is it?"

"Where have these pages gone?" Hikari held up the book for him to see, even though he didn't bother looking at it.

Raito gave an exasperated sigh. "I can't afford to wait a week. _Hikari_, this world can't afford for me to wait a week."

"Well you can say goodbye to sharing the Death Note." She stood up, holding the book close to her chest.

"Is that so?" He laughed at her, getting up and walking over to her until he was standing right in front of her. "It wouldn't be too hard to coerce the Death Note from you."

Raito delicately caressed her cheek before placing a strand of hair behind her ear. His fingers lingered down her neck, tracing the material of her top, going under it near her collar bone. Hikari involuntarily shivered, dropping the book that was in her hands.

"No sort of seduction can get me to bend to your will." She inched back from him, crawling backwards to the head of his bed.

He gave a sinister smile and followed her, until his body was hovering over hers, effectively trapping her from any escape until he was done. "How about I try anyway? I really need your Death Note and I'm not the type to hit a girl."

Hikari's breath became shallow at how close they were together. He grabbed her glasses taking them off her and placed them on the bedside table. Her vision went blurry and couldn't see when his lips pressed against hers. She tried not to respond to the kiss. He seemed to sense this so his added more pressure, his hand entangling itself in her hair from behind her head. This way he could tilt it to the right angle, for the best leverage. She hated herself for reacting the way she did. An arm found its way around his neck, her fingers running through his hair and tugging at it with a little bit of pressure. Her other hand grabbed onto his ruffled school shirt, this stopped him from pulling away if he wanted to.

His tongue licked at her bottom lip, wanting to gain entrance but she wasn't about to give it to him so easily. Raito ground his hips into hers, eliciting a heated moan from both of them. Her tongue met his in the heated kiss and they had trouble remaining dominant over the other. She became shocked with herself, when in her thoughts she started to want him. Hikari grinned against his mouth at how much more jealous the girls in her class would be if they were to ever find out about this.

A blatant ringing could be heard from a pocket of her jeans. Inwardly cursing she pulled it out, checking who the caller was. It was useless because she couldn't see a thing, if only she had bothered with personalised ringtones, it wouldn't have been a problem. She let herself take a few deep breaths to try calm down the rapid beating of her heart. Raito stayed above her, watching her, waiting for her to answer the device.

"H-hello?" She flipped the phone open and her voice sounded as if she had ran a marathon, she hoped the person on the other side wasn't one of her parents.

"_Darling, where are you?"_

_Not good_. Hikari anticipated that Raito would get off of her, but he didn't. Instead he kissed her jaw going down to her neck. "Uh… I'm just at a friend's house, helping them with their homework." She squealed when feeling a very cold hand on her stomach.

"_What happened? Are you alright?"_

"I'm fine Dad. I just thought I saw a mouse." Hikari could feel the vibrations of Raito's silent laugh, on her neck, at her poor excuse.

"_Okay, well try not to be out for too long, your mother has just started cooking dinner, we hardly ever get to see you."_

_Whose fault is that?_ "We will finish this one equation and I'll come right home."

He hung up after saying goodbye. She dropped her phone onto the bed.

"I can't beli-" Hikari's rant was soon interrupted by another kiss.

She didn't complain and she didn't want him to stop either. Hikari pulled him closer, getting them back to where they were before the interruption of her father. Her heart rate missed a few beats as she felt his hand slide up towards her chest. Was he really prepared to go this far for the Death Note?

"Raito!" A loud knocking on his bedroom door brought them both back to their senses. "Dinner's ready!"

"I'll be right down there, just give me a few minutes." Raito called back.

She smirked at the way he was breathing heavily, still on top of her. Hikari pushed him over onto the other side of the bed and tried to flatten her curly hair. She put her glasses back on and got off the bed to pick up the Death Note from the floor.

"The two pages you've stolen should last you a week. I will give you another two pages next week and so forth."

She went to leave the room but his hand stopped her. He turned her around and lightly kissed her one last time. Raito held her head in his hands and leaned down to be at her eye level. "I want you to know that we will be in this together, just you and me."

She had trouble figuring out whether he was being genuine or not. After hearing Ryuk snort, she blushed, thinking about what the two shinigamis would have just witnessed moments earlier. Her blush deepened when she bumped into Sayu outside of his door.

Sayu gave Hikari a knowing smile and wink. "So that's why my big brother needed some time to finish off."

She left the house in a hurry, eyes concentrated on the ground, ignoring the offer from Sayu that she should stay for dinner. An invisible Ankh loyally followed her, shaking his head.

* * *

"The deaths have stopped for three days now." Raito said as they walked back to his house, it became quite the ritual. Finish school, go to Raito's, have a heavy make-out session and then go back home. "You've searched my room. I don't have any more pieces."

"I know." Hikari smiled at him sweetly. "I already have the pages torn out ready for you."

He grinned relieved, it had been quite the stressful few days watching criminal names being displayed on the news and not having anything _proper_ to write them on.

"They need to make a rehab for people like you." She laughed at him. "Looks like you've been getting withdrawal symptoms."

"Oh?" He didn't think she would notice that his hands had been slightly shaking.

"Yeah, they've already named this rehab centre for you. It's called a prison."

His eyes narrowed. "I'm not a criminal."

"Good thing that's true, or else I would be in danger." She said sarcastically and hurried up to his bedroom, waiting for him to open his door.

The last time she rushed in, he scolded her because she broke the lead piece he keeps near the hinge, in her haste to open the door. She argued that if he wasn't so paranoid about getting caught, it wouldn't have mattered.

"Where are the pages?"

Hikari rolled her eyes before producing two neatly torn pieces from her bag and she handed them both to him. "Here you go."

He snatched them from her not bothering to verbalise any appreciation. A glint could be seen in his eyes as he looked at them, all he needed to do was make this supply last a week. Seven days shouldn't be too hard. The pages looked exactly like any other page from the Death Note, except there was only one difference. There was writing on the top of each page in the right corners. If he overlapped the pages, he was able to read a familiar name.

_Yagami Raito_.

It was his name. Hikari had written his name in the Death Note. Was it with the intent to kill him? Why wasn't he dead?

"Don't worry I knew it wouldn't _kill_ you." She was sitting on his bed, smiling at him, the same sweet smile from earlier. "It needs to be on the same page for that to happen."

Raito went over to her and pulled her up by grabbing her wrist, her glasses were knocked off her face. She winced at the pressure he used against her wrist. "Why did you do it? I should kill you." He yelled in her face, earning more cringing from Hikari.

He pulled a hand back and was about to slap her when he felt restricted. He couldn't move his arm any closer to her. Ankh was holding onto it, looking none too friendly at him.

"I won't let any man or _boy_ hit her." He let go of his arm, taking out his Death Note and a pen he also kept on him. "I should write your name in this."

"Ankh, don't do that!" She freed herself from Raito's grip to stop the movements of her shinigami. It was hard because all she saw was a big blurry silhouette. "I don't want Raito dead."

Ankh looked into her eyes for what seemed like a long time before slowly put his Death Note away. He picked up her glasses from the ground and placed them back on her face, he stayed close by Hikari just in case something was to happen. She turned to Raito giving him a genuine smile this time.

"Think of it as insurance."

"Insurance?" Raito asked confused.

"Yes." She moved closer to him and started removing the creases from his school shirt. "Obviously _Yagami Raito_ is your real name…" Her fingers moved to start untying his tie, only to tie it back up again. "I really don't want you dead, but if you harm me in any way…" She tightened the tie around his neck a bit too much, causing him to gasp. "I won't hesitate to kill you."

He loosened the tie, removing the offending item from his neck. Raito was angry, but there wasn't much else he could do. He took one step towards her, lacing his fingers with hers. Leaning to her ear, he whispered. "Of course, I'm sorry."

Hikari closed her eyes briefly and let herself shiver into him. She kissed his cheek since his was still down at her level. "It's funny how our names mean the same thing."

"Light." He replied.

"It's the opposite of how we really should be described." She removed herself from him and walked to the exit. "Have fun with those pages, try and make them last."

Ankh followed her out, this time when the shinigami left, he sent a glare Raito's way, filled with an unkind promise of suffering.

As soon as Hikari was outside, Raito slammed his fists on his desk yelling out in frustration. Ryuk just looked at him and laughed, the girl was definitely something different.

"Looks like she has got you right where she wants you." The shinigami continued laughed at him.

"Not quite." Raito looked at the pieces of the Death Note in front of him.

Instead of switching on his computer and searching up the names of criminals he missed while waiting for the pages. He uncapped a pen and wrote one name of who was still clearly pictured in his mind. Ryuk chuckled at the name he read over Raito's shoulder.

_Shimizu Hikari_.


	5. Unrestricted

**A/N: **Here's my weekly update, enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 5

_The number of pages of the Death Note will never run out._

Raito walked into the classroom, not at all surprised to see Hikari sitting in her usual seat at the back. He noticed that she was flipping through the Death Note and frowned. _Why would she bring evidence like that to such a public place?_ Ankh was standing behind her, looking very out of place in the educational environment. Maybe that was why Hikari always sat at the back in all of the classes he had with her, to try and improve the comfort of her shinigami. They obviously had a much better relationship than he had with his own shinigami.

Ryuk spent his time looking around the place, making faces at the other students and dancing on the desks when he got extremely bored. There had been one time where Hikari kept on giggling at random and started getting questioning looks from the teacher and their class mates. Not that she cared about how everyone perceived her, he knew she didn't.

She looked over at him smiling a greeting as he sat down.

"I wrote your name on a page of the Death Note." Raito said, keeping his eyes to the front of the classroom.

He would never admit it aloud but he was sort of scared of what Hikari's reaction would be. Raito didn't know whether she would get angry at him or react in an unbothered way. Raito could've just never told her, but he didn't want her to find out some other way or to show her any of his fear. He was going to be a God and they feared nothing.

"I figured you would do something like that." She laughed, placing a hand on his knee, rubbing circles with her thumb. "I did pretty much give you a death threat. I'm _sorry_." Hikari went back to flipping through the Death Note, the object seemed to be amusing her. "Is it just me, or is this book never-ending?"

"I don't know." Raito said, glancing at the book briefly. "I haven't been able to personally use it for a while."

"That's right, but it was your own fault." She smirked at him. "You were just so greedy. Did you know greed is one of the deadly sins?"

"Yes and I wasn't being greedy."

Hikari ignored him and started ticking off something in her head with each finger until she held her hand in his face, each digit spread wide. "Five. Out of all seven, you show the signs of five." She lowered her voice and leaned in closer to him. "I think you need help."

He twitched in annoyance and started ignoring her. His eyes started to follow the way the Death Note pages flickered left and right with each flip Hikari continued to do. Not being able to take it anymore, Raito snatched the book from her, a gasp of surprise leaving her lips.

"Why did you do that?" She said, pretending to sulk.

"What are you even doing with this here?" He held the Death Note in front of her, allowing her to take it from his grip. "It's dangerous bringing it to school."

Hikari scoffed at Raito. "It's not like anyone cares about what I'm holding." She pointed at the occupants of the classroom, who were all in their own little groups. "They're people, like you, who are so self-absorbed that they don't care about what's going on around them." She looked over at him, seeing if he would still argue with her.

"_Anyone_ could touch it." Raito harshly whispered. The teacher walked in and started calling out people's names for attendance. "Do you want them to see Ankh? It would draw a lot more attention to you and also to me."

"Let see what happens shall we?"

Hikari pushed up her glasses that were falling down her nose, and held the Death Note so it was almost out of her hand. Trying not to be noticed by the teacher, she leaned over her desk and reached out with the book in her hand, to the boy sitting in front of her. Before she could get the Death Note to touch the boy, Raito grabbed her arm and pulled Hikari back into her seat. His face got very close to hers and she could feel his angered breathing on her mouth as she frowned at him.

"What was that for?" She asked.

"Are you crazy?" Raito closed his eyes, unsure to whether he actually wanted to hear her answer. "What would you have done if _it_ touched him?"

"Quite possibly, I mean, we do use a Death Note." Hikari smiled as he let out a frustrated breath and let her go. "Calm down, I wasn't really going to let it touch him, I knew you would stop me."

"Yagami! Shimizu!" Both students gazed over at the teacher who shouted at them. "Perhaps whatever you're talking about could be shared with the class?"

"It's nothing." Raito said, giving the teacher his best smile. "Hikari just needed some help with one of the questions."

"Is that why you were almost kissing her?"

"I wasn't." The rest of the class laughed at the teacher's point, save a few of the female students who turned to glare at the girl.

"I would like to see what notes you've been writing in that book." The teacher said, just as Hikari was about to put it away in her school back.

She gave Raito a scared look. He smiled smugly at her waiting to see what she was going to do. _Jerk_. She looked from the teacher to the Death Note in her hands and stood up. Picking up her bag, she ran out of the classroom, leaving no explanation for why she left. Ankh followed her until they were walking down a familiar road outside of the school.

"The book has an abundance of pages." Ankh stated, answering her question from earlier. "It will never run out."

Hikari frowned as she went into a bakery a few streets down from her house. This meant that the only reason Raito was pacing his killings were through her restrictions. If the Death Note has unlimited pages then Raito could kill for however long he was alive. She could always pull away, make him stop. She shook her head smiling as she waited in the long line. She was already in too deep, he would have ways to blackmail her, but that didn't bother her, she didn't want to pull away. Hikari liked Raito, _a lot_. She would never admit it to him, he probably already knew anyway. His way to create a better world, although had many flaws, was better than the world they lived in. It was the only way to get things perfect.

The woman behind the counter gave Hikari the piece of cake and cookie she ordered while also giving her a weird look. She realised that going to a place this crowded while still in uniform in the middle of the day was probably not the best idea. It just screamed out _delinquent!_ She turned around, bumping into a man behind her, the cake, cookie and plate falling to the ground. The plate smashed against the floor, the cake and cookie just made a mess.

"I'm sorry!" Hikari said to the man as she tried to clean up the floor.

Ankh stared in horror at the broken pieces of his cookie scattered everywhere. If he was willing to risk being caught, he would've pick up every piece, but people would likely scream at all the floating and disappearing crumbs.

"Look at that! I knew you were bad news the moment you walked in." The lady from behind the counter chided her for being so irresponsible and called for someone else to clean the mess.

"It was my fault as well." The man said. Hikari looked at him and saw darkness under his eyes. Obviously he never got much sleep. "Let me buy you another one and then we can eat together."

After he bought the sweet food, she followed him to the seating area outside. He took his shoes off and crouched on the seat, feet on the edge. Hikari looked under the table and, her brow furrowed when she saw he wasn't wearing any socks. She stared at her piece of cake. It was the same type she had ordered earlier. the new cookie was wrapped and placed in her bag. Using the fork given to her she picked at the cake, slowly eating the delicious dessert. The man did the same but held his fork in a funny way, with only his fore-finger and thumb.

He chewed with his mouth open and pointed at her with his fork, not bothering to finish what was in his mouth. "Don't you think that skirt is a bit too short?"

"I never really thought about it." She nervously pulled at the ends of her school uniform, suddenly self-conscious under his owl-like stare.

"You're showing more skin than a prostitute in Shibuya." He took another bite from his cake.

Hikari was shocked at his bluntness. "I suppose you're into that sort of thing then."

"No. I don't have the time." He placed the fork down next to his half-eaten cake and started biting his thumb nail. "I'm Ryuuga Hideki."

She stared at him, was it even possible for him to have the same name as the pop star? "I'm Shimizu Hikari. What is the chanc-"

"Less than one percent. What are your thoughts on Kira?" Ryuuga asked quickly. "I hear it's a very popular conversation piece in schools these days."

"Well… there are some people out there who think Kira is justice and others who think Kira is scum."

"What do _you_ think of Kira? I don't care what anyone else thinks."

Hikari stayed silent for a bit. "I like him."

"You're making a big assumption thinking it's a _him_." Ryuuga's eyes never left hers and observed the way she would look away from him every few seconds. It could've been because she was intimidated or most likely something else. "I'm part of the group that would disagree with you."

Her cell phone started going off, disrupting their conversation. Hikari picked it out of her pocket and looked at the screen. _Yagami Raito_. She pressed a button so the call went straight to her voicemail.

"Having boy troubles?"

Hikari rolled her eyes at him. "Hardly."

A limousine pulled out in front of the bakery and an elderly man came out of the back, keeping the door open. "Ryuuzaki, you said you would only be five minutes."

"I did too." He muttered to himself absentmindedly. "Do you need a ride Hikari?"

"Less than one percent chance huh, _Ryuuzaki_." She found herself rolling her eyes at him again.

"There is a perfectly good reason, but I don't think you would believe me."

"You're right about that, I wouldn't." Hikari stood up and started to walk away, waving. "Goodbye, whoever you are."

L watched her walking away. He could swear she started talking to herself. _And people call me weird. _He got into the limousine and Watari followed him.

"I want you to put me on the phone to Chief Yagami."

Watari handed him a cell phone and L held it to his ear with only his fore-finger and thumb. _"What is it Ryuuzaki?"_

"I want you to get me all the information you have on Shimizu Hikari." He had no expression in his voice or on his face. He heard some typing coming from the other end and waited.

"_The records show three separate reports all involving different children being heart attack victims, including her cousin. She had been suspected and questioned but there was no evidence to prove anything on all occasions."_

L thought this over in his head. He was putting all the pieces together. The current victims are dying from strange heart attacks. Hikari was involved with three incidents also with the victims dying of heart attacks, children who are too young to even suffer from those symptoms. "I want you to send those to me Chief Yagami, is that all?"

"_No… there was a time before I became Chief, we had to question a young girl who was the last person to see her babysitter, before the babysitter committed suicide. Nothing was put into the systems, there was no point."_

"Was that young girl Shimizu Hikari?"

"_Yes."_

"I see…" L was about to hang up when he heard the Chief say something else.

"_Hikari has been hanging out with Raito lately. Do you think this means anything?"_

"Yes, Raito has strange tastes in friends." He hung up before the father could say anything more.

The more L thought about it, the more he became certain. As of right now, Hikari Shimizu was just as much of a suspect to being Kira as Raito was.


	6. If Looks Could Kill

**A/N: **I just want to thank everyone who has reviewed, alerted and favourited so far. Thank you! Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 6

_The God of Death must not tell humans the names or life spans of individuals he/she sees. This is to avoid confusion in the human world._

"Happy birthday!" The shouts inside the dining area of the Shimizu house reverberated throughout the whole house.

Raito had woken Hikari up early that morning and offered to take her to Space Land, with the plan of keeping her occupied for the whole day. She jumped at the chance assuming that her parents would be working, like they did every other birthday of hers. They had just over a month of their holiday break to go until it was time to head off to university. She was enjoying the holidays so much that the idea of going back to study was unwanted.

So when she walked into her house that was supposed to be empty and led into the dark dining room, Hikari wasn't expecting to almost have a heart attack. She was shocked to see the smiling faces of her parents and the Yagami family when the lights were suddenly turned on and their shouting filled her ears. The remnants from the blown party poppers covered the floor before her. The table was covered in traditional Japanese foods that were made by the women and with a little help from Sayu.

Hikari looked around the room and up at the ceiling. Everything was decorated with green, her favourite colour, crepe paper and she also saw a birthday banner on the far wall. The men, with the exception of Raito, put all the decorations up, keeping busy by the demands from the women cooking the food. Ankh and Ryuk, who had been lagging behind them just entered. She felt the hand of her shinigami petting her head, he knew that this was probably the most thought her parents had every put into something for her.

"Happy birthday, _babe_." Raito whispered into her ear, so it wasn't noticed by the others.

"Come sit down, darling." Her mother said, gesturing to a free seat. "You can thank Raito for everything, it was all his idea."

"Really?" She looked over at the guy who sat beside her. "Here I thought he was jealous that I'm a week older than him."

Everyone laughed as they also sat down. The fathers took their respective places at the head and tail of the table, their wives sitting on the side, beside the respective husband. Hikari and Raito sat on the side next to her mother and Sayu sat next to Sachiko. They all chatted freely while passing around the diversity of foods to choose from. She was even allowed to try sake for the first time but quickly spat it back into the cup while having a coughing fit.

"Urgh, how can you drink that stuff?" Hikari choked out. Raito started patting her back trying to get her breathing normal again.

"It's an acquired taste honey." Her father said, trying not to laugh. "You will get used to it."

Ankh had disappeared into the kitchen by himself. Most likely glad everyone was busy so he could go about with his raiding.

Soichiro cleared his throat and everyone became silent, she noticed how the parents were giving each other knowing looks and how her father gave a slight nod. "Sayu mentioned today how you two have been _going out_, as is the term for this day and age, or so we were told." He cleared his throat again before continuing. "As parents we want to look out for the both of you and also want to know, how long this has been going on for?"

"We're no-" Hikari started saying with her mouth full of food before she was interrupted by Raito.

"Three months."

Hikari started to choke on her food, only to feel the patting of his hand again. She stared at him, shocked for the second time that night.

"Darling, it's okay. We just need to know you guys are being safe, there are a lot of infections out ther-"

"Mum, stop!" Hikari closed her eyes for a bit before opening them again. "_Please _don't tell me you are giving us a sex talk in front of everyone and while there is still food on the table."

"I can assure you Mrs. Shimizu that we haven't gotten to that stage in our relationship yet and when we do, I will make sure to wear protection."

Hikari moved her plate out of the way and dropped her head on the table, hard, shaking everything on it. A very deep blush was on her cheeks and she just wanted the ground to swallow hole, she was mortified. It was bad enough with her Mum, but Raito as well? That just made things worse.

Raising her head and looking at everyone meekly. "Thank you for the meal. Can I be excused?"

Her mother nodded and Hikari went up to her room. The only thing that made her happy was the way Sayu was also blushing, probably after hearing such words not yet suitable for her ears at her age. Raito also excused himself and followed his girlfriend up to her room.

"Three months huh?" She asked turning around as soon as she heard the door opened, knowing that if it was Ankh he would just walk through it.

Raito walked up to her interlacing their fingers together. "What do you call this..." He whispered, gently nipping her earlobe, "and this?"

He walked backwards, pulling her with him until he is on her bed. Hikari sat on Raito so that her knees were on either side of him. Smiling, she took the invitation of his hands grabbing her ass and pulling her closer to start unbuttoning his dress shirt. He had stopped wearing ties ever since the first incident, not wanting to be choked again. She was glad he didn't wear one, if his hair wasn't so perfectly place, he would've had a rugged look.

"I hear you got your acceptance letter for To-Oh." Raito closed his eyes as her fingernails lightly scrapped down his chest, small white lines following.

"Yes." Hikari pecked his lips with a kiss. "I was also accepted into Osaka."

He stood up, still holding Hikari to him and laid her on her back, he was on top of her, holding his own weight. She could tell he was angry and couldn't help but laugh at him. Raito's eyes angrily flashed at her, not amused. "I didn't know you applied for Osaka."

"I've heard that long distance can be healthy for a relationship."

"You're going to To-Oh." He said it as an order.

"If I refuse?" She raised an eyebrow at him as if challenging him to physically force her into it.

"I'll leave you and you will never see me again."

Hikari closed her eyes, she didn't like that outcome. It was too late for her to come out and say that she never applied for Osaka. Their argument had gotten too serious. She was sure he wouldn't understand the humour behind it, plus she didn't like backing down. There was only one thing she could use against him, to stop him and it would work. It would always work. She opened her eyes, meeting the stare of his brown ones.

"You should probably say your farewells to the Death Note on the way out."

Ryuk's laughter could be heard somewhere behind him and Raito cursed quietly. With the small space between him she heard his words perfectly. "There's something I want you to do for me." He said quietly, she could see the wheels inside his head turning as they looked at each other. He had a plan and he was going to make it work no matter what was in his way. "Think of it as a proposal. If you do this for me, we will be by each other's side till the end of this perfect world I'm creating."

"What is it?" She was weary, knowing it was going to be something he would gain and most likely something she would lose.

"You've seen the news and heard about L, right?"

"Yes… where are you going with this?" She sat up. Raito had already left the bed and was now pacing to and fro. Ankh had finally entered, through the window, crumbs lining his snout and he held out an apple for Ryuk who ate it in one go.

"He has given me a death sentence. We need to get rid of him." He stopped his pacing when he was in front of Hikari. Holding her face he placed a kiss on each of her eyelids. "I want you to gain the shinigami eyes."

"I should've guessed that." She laughed and pulled out of his embrace. "There's no way I'm doing that for you. You make the eye deal."

"How am I supposed to be a God if I die early?"

"How am I supposed to be by your side if I die early?"

Raito made her sit back on the bed and knelt before her, holding both of her hands in his and stroking the tops of them with his thumbs. "I like you a lot Hikari, enough to say that I think I'm falling in love with you." He noticed her breath hitch and got on the bed, lying down and motioning her to do the same. "I'll give you some time to consider it, but I know in the end you will make the right decision. I will leave otherwise."

Her eyes drifted down to his well-defined chest that was visible because his shirt was still opened. She reached out and pinched one of his nipples watching it quickly harden in the few seconds afterwards. She moved to do the same to the other but Raito grabbed her hand to stop her. He raised it and kissed each of her knuckles.

"If you continue I will not be accountable for my actions." His smile reached his eyes and Hikari couldn't see any lies within them.

Was his earlier confession also genuine? Or was it just a way to get her to do what he wanted? She wanted to help him out, in any way she could, but was it worth giving up half of her remaining life span? "Ankh…" Hikari whispered, knowing the shinigami could hear her. "How long do I have to live?"

"I cannot say."

"I thought so." She looked at her shinigami and smiled, letting him know that she didn't think any less of him because of it.

"There would be a benefit to getting the eyes." Ryuk said, his voice surprising Hikari. He wasn't on Raito's side, but if the girl did accept the shinigami eyes, everything would keep on getting more interesting and that was all he cared about. "Not only would you be able to see the names and life spans of everyone. Your eyes would be better than any other human's. Those glasses wouldn't be needed anymore. The procedure of getting the eyes is painless."

"I think there's a way for Ankh to tell you how long you have to live." Raito said aloud, still thinking his idea over in his head. "If he were to write how old you would be when you die, onto a piece of paper," He went to her desk and got out a notebook from one of the drawers, seeing the Death Note underneath. "He could give it to Ryuk who would then give it to me. I would give it to you and then we can work out how old you would be if half of your remaining life span was to be removed."

"Could that work Ankh?" Hikari asked, looking up at her shinigami.

"It would stop me from directly breaking one of the rules." Ankh started writing on a piece of paper that Raito gave him, using the pen he used when writing names into his Death Note.

She watched as the piece of paper went from one shinigami to the other, before going to Raito who looked at the number and smiled, and then he handed it to her. Hikari squinted as she tried to make out Ankh's scrawled numerals.

"Are you lying to me Ankh?" She was surprised at how high of a number it was. Obviously she was never going to be in any accidents during her lifetime.

"If I was lying, the number would be lower." She now knew he didn't want her making the deal. It made her feel bad, especially if she ended up asking for it. Was he aware of something that she didn't know about?

"With this figure, if I make the deal I will live until I'm…" Working this out in her head was not going to happen. Hikari went over to her desk when she felt a pair of arms around her waist and Raito kissing the back of her head.

"It's 52 years." He whispered into her ear.

"I would've figured that out! I'm not completely incompetent when it comes to maths."

"You were trying to find your calculator…"

She huffed in annoyance, ignoring him. Closing her eyes, she started to slow her breathing. _Should I?_ "Ankh… I'll take the eyes."

Ryuk laughed again and Ankh's muttering could only just be heard over it, he didn't sound too happy. "Very well."

Hikari opened her eyes and noticed the difference immediately. For the first time, looking through her glasses made everything out of focus and was starting to hurt. She took them off and looked around her room. It was like seeing for the first time, everything fascinated her and was so crystal clear. Outside with the setting sun, she could see all the far houses in front of hers, when normally she couldn't even see beyond the road. This could possibly be one of the best presents she had gotten and it was from her shinigami. Turning to Raito, she saw the wavering characters of each name above his head. She frowned when realising something.

"I can't see your life span." She continued frowning, stepping closer to him as if they would suddenly appear.

"He owns a Death Note." Ankh answered her silent question.

"Oh." She smiled again, giving Raito a small disturbed feeling. "I can always kill you on the birthday of the year I'm supposed to die."

"Could you try not sounding so happy when talking about me and killing at the same time?" She was like a light switch when it came to how she was feeling, he surmised.

In truth, Raito didn't care what she talked about. Hikari had made the deal for the eyes and he would be able to use them as well. His heart skipped a beat when he felt her kissing him, her tongue probing his lips to explore the inside of his mouth. He closed his eyes and all he saw were images of her, racing through his mind, until he had only one thought left there. _Would I really have gone if she had said no?_


	7. Accusations

**A/N: **The first scene is recognisable (I do not own it). I made myself not watch the episode just so everything would be from memory to try and make it less 'exact'. Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 7

_When a human dies, a Death Note owner with the eyes of a God of Death can no longer see the deceased human's life span and name in photos and videos._

All she could hear was the chatter of all the new students around her. Hikari was sitting on the opposite side of the large hall from Raito, a few rows from the front. She hated being around large groups of people ever since she obtained the eyes. The characters of everyone's names and the numbers of how long they had to live just swam around her, making her feel dizzy. She held onto her head and closed her eyes, waiting for the feeling to pass.

"Are you okay?" A girl beside her asked, touching her shoulder.

"I'm fine." Hikari gave a strained smile. _Suzuki Kyoto_, she gasped when she saw how long the girl had to live, _only three more days._

Upon hearing Raito get called up, she turned back to the front and clapped loudly, like everyone else but when a second person was called she stopped instantly, her eyes narrowing. Walking up behind her boyfriend was Ryuuga. Apparently he was sticking to the first alias he introduced himself as, for university. Hikari leaned forward as she looked at the name above his head. She recognised the letters from the English alphabet and also noticed that the name was different from both names he had previously used. _Could it be?_

Once again she clapped, along with everyone else, as the guys made their way back to their seats. She saw them turning towards each other and assumed they were whispering. No matter how much she strained her ears, there was no way for her to hear them. She was just too far away. If only there was some sort of shinigami deal to enhance her hearing.

As the whole hall was dismissed, Hikari walked over to Ankh and Ryuk, who were at the back, and they went outside to wait for Raito. Her mouth started to get sore as she smiled at everyone who passed her and her foot started to tap impatiently all on its own. Finally he exited the building and when he spotted her, he started to smirk. Hikari realised the reason because following him was Ryuuga.

"Hikari, this is Ryuuga. He was the other student representative." Raito placed an arm around his girlfriend and pulled her in to kiss her cheek.

She held out her hand. "Ryuuga, it is ni-"

"Hello Hikari." Ryuuga shook her hand while interrupting her. "You don't have your glasses on, are you wearing contacts instead?"

She leaned back into Raito as Ryuuga stepped forward to inspect her eyes. Hikari also felt Raito's grip on her shoulder tighten and she tried her best not to cry out as his knuckles continued to whiten.

"I wasn't aware you already knew each other." He seethed, trying to keep the friendly smile on his face.

"Yes, we've even been on a date." Ryuuga stated with complete seriousness.

"It wasn-"

"It was. I bought her food and everything."

Hikari hung her head in defeat. It was pointless. This _Ryuuga _guy just didn't know when to shut up and he appeared to be enjoying it. She was glad when Raito's hand left her shoulder but looked up suddenly when she heard it connect with Ryuuga's face. She stared in horror, when Ryuuga kicked the underside of Raito's chin, sending him backwards until he connected with the wall. People stopped to look at what was happening, the crowd wasn't that big but large enough to gain other people's attention.

"Oh no, Raito!" Hikari ran to him and checked his wound. His chin was already starting to bruise and looking back at Ryuuga she saw the beginnings of a black eye. Ryuk was no help because he just laughed at the scene before him.

"Hikari, would you like to have lunch with me again?" Ryuuga asked from behind her. "There is something we need to discuss and I believe I owe you an apology."

"It's not me you should apologise to!"

Ryuuga walked passed Hikari and looked at Raito. "I'm sorry Raito. Can I take your girlfriend out?"

"No." He shoved Ryuuga out of the way and grabbed her hand, dragging her away from Ryuuga.

"You should share Raito." Ryuuga started walking beside Hikari not letting them get away. "Selfishness will never get you far in life."

"Maybe he's right." Hikari spoke up, causing Raito to stop and glare at her. "Ryuuga said he wanted to talk to me, it might be important."

"It is very important."

"Would you shut up Ryuuga?" Raito yelled at him, losing his cool. "I don't like this, but if you think it is a good idea then go have lunch with him."

He pulled her close to him and gently kissed her. Hikari opened her mouth for him when his tongue asked for entrance. The kiss turned quite heated and definitely not appropriate for public display. Ryuuga stood there, staring and not able to take his eyes away. He started to cough and shift his feet, showing how uncomfortable he was. Raito whispered something into her ear which Ryuuga couldn't hear, before he started walking away. Hikari turned and looked at him.

"Were you watching the whole time?" She asked when she saw his eyes on her. Ryuuga finally found the decency to look away and purposefully ignored her question. "What a pervert!"

"I am not a pervert."

A limousine parked beside them and the door opened to reveal the elder man from the first time, the one who called Ryuuga, _Ryuuzaki_. Hikari was the last to enter the spacious vehicle, sitting next to Ryuuga while the elderly man sat opposite them. She looked at him instead of the guy beside her, who started complaining about his eye. Ankh was sitting next to the elder man and it took a lot of effort to not stare at him and start laughing. Holding her large handbag close, she felt around inside it and turned her cell phone on silent, so that there wouldn't be any interruptions.

"Raito has a nice right hook." Ryuuga stated, wincing every time he touched his eye.

Hikari rolled her eyes and turned towards him, noticing that even in the vehicle he sat weirdly. "Let me have a look at it."

Ryuuga complied and let her hold his face as she stared at the black eye. She started to poke and prod the purple stain near his eye, which caused him to flinch and groan in pain a few times. Hikari ignored his protests for her to let go but it was still a couple more minutes until she did as he asked. The bruise looked deathly against his pale skin.

"I'm sure you'll survive. You're a big boy now."

They arrived at the same bakery where they first met. As soon as they got out the limousine, it drove off leaving the two of them alone. Ryuuga bought the same cakes that they had last time, even the cookie which Hikari would give to Ankh later, and also got them some drinks. Instead of sitting outside like they had the previous time, he walked to a back booth. There was no one in the shop so being overheard wouldn't be a problem.

"I am L."

Hikari spat out the sip she had just drank from her juice all over the detective in front of her. His revelation surprised her immensely and she saw him use a napkin to dab his face dry. She looked back up to his real name and smiled at the similarity she saw. _Figures, the best alias would be an upfront one._ He started eating his dessert and began talking with his mouth full.

"There had only been a three percent chance that you were Kira, but now that has gone up to eight." He pulled out four photos from his pocket and placed them on the table in front of her. "These people have been Kira's latest victims."

Looking at the photographs, she couldn't help but smile. Only one of the people shown to her was actually dead. The other three had names and life spans above their heads, indicating that they were actually alive.

"L, I'm not Kira." Hikari picked up the photo of the guy who was dead. "When did these people die?"

"A couple of days ago." L stared at her without blinking, trying to pick up any signal that would confirm his suspicions. "How are you able to kill?"

"I'm not Kira. Do the families know about these deaths?"

"Yes, they were the first to be notified when we found them."

_What a little liar._ "I don't know what else to say. I really hope you catch Kira."

"At the ages eight, eleven and fifteen, three different people you knew died of heart attacks." He took away the photos and carried on eating his delectable cake. "I guarantee you had a part in each of those freak incidents."

She shook her head. "My cousin was one of them." Hikari was glad that she wasn't attached to a heart monitor because it was beating like crazy. This was bound to come up but she had to keep convincing herself that it had nothing to do with Kira. _She_ was innocent, to an extent. "I can assure you that it was just a tragic coincidence that I was anywhere near them. I had a babysitter when I was really young, though I don't exactly remember much from then but I heard she had committed suicide. Do you think I had a part of that as well?"

L smiled. Partly surprised that she had brought up the babysitter, which was a detail he was going to just leave out. "Anything is possible, even for someone at the age of five."

"Are you speaking from experience L? I'm surprised someone at your age would even remember anything from when they were five."

"How long have you and Raito been in a relationship for?" L asked, deliberately changing the subject. He noticed her gentle smile at the mention of the other guy.

"Almost five months now." She pointed her fork at him. "L… which one of us do you really suspect?"

"I suspect both of you." He started to bite his thumbnail after finishing his cake. "How is everything going between you two?"

"If I needed a relationship counsellor, I would pay for one." Hikari finished the last of her juice. "But… if you really want to know…"

"I do."

"Everything is great."

"Are you going to eat that cookie?" He pointed to the bag containing the item.

"I was going to save it for later."

L grabbed the cookie from her side of the table and took a bite out of it. She tried not to laugh at the sound of Ankh whimpering. "Hypothetically speaking, if you were Kira, why would you kill so many criminals?" Crumbs flew from his mouth as he spoke.

"I suppose, if I was Kira, to kill so many criminals… I would have something against them." Hikari avoided his eyes, hoping that she wasn't giving too much away.

"What are you studying at To-Oh?"

"Criminal law." She cursed internally as soon as she said it. L grinned smugly and then she realised it was the better choice to tell the truth because he probably had already done a background check on her. Being a student at To-Oh most likely was just a cover for him.

"So would you say that _you_ have something against criminals?"

"No, well yes… but not like that!" She stood up and slammed her hands on the table. "Damn it! I am not Kira!"

Hikari successfully gained all of the attention of everyone who was in the bakery and quietly sat back down apologising. She was sure if L's smile got any bigger his face would crack open due to the lack of use of the expression.

"Make that twelve percent now." He was practically gloating.

"Unless you have any hard evidence that I'm Kira, I'm leaving." When L didn't say anything and just stared at her, Hikari got up and left.

After she was sure he wasn't following her, she pulled out her cell phone and saw there were twenty missed calls, all from Raito. _What could he have possibly wanted?_

As Hikari rang him, he picked up before the first tone even finished. "Seriously Raito, _twenty_?"

"_Where are you?"_

Of course he would ignore her first question. "I'm just walking home. Don't worry, nothing happened between me and L. I don't have much money left on my phone. I'll call you when I get home."

"_No! Meet me at the park."_

"Uh, okay." Hikari spoke to the dead tone, since he hung up as soon as he finished speaking. "That was strange."

"Let's just go to the park, see what he wants." Ankh suggested and they turned around to walk in the direction they came from. A limousine with tinted windows passed them.


	8. Death

**A/N: **It's been ages since my last update.. sorry! But I can assure you that updates from now on will be much quicker! :D Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 8

_There are laws in the world of Gods of Death. If a God of Death should break the law, there are nine levels of severity, killing a human without using the Death Note is considered as the Extreme Level._

"Hikari!" Raito called out and ran over to her, bringing her in for a hug. "Tell me you haven't been home."

"No I haven't. Why are you acting so strangely?" She pushed at his chest to put some space between them and look up at his face. "You called me twenty times, a bit excessive don't you think?"

"My house is bugged with cameras and microphones, Ryuk found a lot." Raito closed his eyes for a few seconds. "I think your house might be bugged as well."

"Well L sure takes being a pervert to the extreme." Hikari muttered and then shook her head when he gave her a questioning gaze.

"The Death Note!" Raito shouted out suddenly. It was lucky that they were alone in the park, she was sure people would've started looking at them weirdly.

"Have you only just thought about that?"

"Yes, I was more worried about your privacy." Hikari couldn't help but smile at his sweet words. "His men probably searched everywhere… they have it. This is bad, this is really bad." He started pacing all over the place.

"Raito, calm down." She kneeled down and opened the bag she had with her, taking out the Death Note that was in it. "I have it right here."

"What were you doing with it on you?" His tone was harsher than necessary, only because there had been a few times he had asked her to stop carrying it around with her everywhere.

Hikari just rolled her eyes up at him, placing the notebook back in her bag. "I'm sorry would you rather have had L's cronies find it in my room?"

"You're right." Raito ran his hand through his hair, she was scared he would start prematurely greying at the way he was stressed out.

"Maybe you shouldn't have hidden Ryuk's Death Note so well. If L had found that and then found out it didn't work, you could've been freed from suspicion." Hikari dusted herself of and began walking in the direction of the cemetery.

"Where are you going?" He asked after catching up with her.

"The graveyard, we need to find some place to bury this."

"No." Raito grabbed her arm, making her stop. "You need to write down his real name."

"I can't… I won't." She looked him in the eyes but only saw a determination to get what he wanted. "As soon as we start killing innocent people, this will stop being _justice_."

"Like you haven't killed an innocent person before?" He sneered at her. "The first three people you killed were innocent. They were only _children_. You are a killer Hikari, you are the real Kira."

"No." Hikari got out of his grip and started walking faster. "No, you are wrong. I was young, they were bullies, and _they_ deserved what they got."

She slowed down as they came to the cemetery entrance. Hikari weaved through the various tombstones and Raito followed her, keeping some distance but not so much that he would look creepy to the other visitors. She stopped in front of a random grave and stood there silently, pretending to grieve. There was no point reading what was on it because she was sure she wouldn't know the person. Raito came up from behind her and place his arms around her waist.

"We are both killers, Hikari. That is what makes us perfect for each other." He kissed her cheek and continued holding her close. "In order to survive, we _need_ to kill L. Once he is dead, there will be no one to stop us getting what we want."

"What is it that _we_ want?"

"We want a perfect world with no crime, where Kira will rule as God." He whispered in her ear.

Hikari scoffed. "Raito… that is only what _you_ want."

"What do you want then?"

_You_. She would never say it out loud though. He would likely laugh at her, shove the words back at her. "For a way to get that perfect world you want, o_ur_ perfect world… _without_ killing L."

His grip around her waist tightened to the point that it was painful to be in his arms. "If you can't kill him then tell me his name. I will do it instead."

"No." She breathed, trying not to gain any attention from the others grieving for their lost ones. "Please let go Raito, you're hurting me."

"Not unti-"

Before he was able to finish, Raito was ripped away from Hikari and flung into the nearest tree. The visitors in the graveyard who saw this display of the supernatural started to scream and ran to the exit. She turned around to see Ankh holding him but the neck against the tree. Ankh was seething and Raito was gasping for breath, clawing at the hand holding him up.

"You were hurting Hikari, I cannot allow that." The grip around Raito's neck constricted his breath even more. "I will kill you with this hand if I have to."

"No! Ankh, stop this!" She ran up to him, pulling on his arm. Attempting to try and get her shinigami to let go. "Raito didn't mean it. He is just upset that things aren't going his way, right?"

Raito nodded the best he could, wincing when Ankh squeezed a bit further before loosening enough to allow him to breathe.

"Why do you make up excuses for this boy?"

"Because I… I think I love him." Hikari said it as she looked at the ground. She was unable to look at anyone, afraid of rejection from Raito as well as the possible disgust from Ankh.

A thump could be heard as Raito fell from the tree. The shinigami finally let him go. He was massaging his sore neck, hoping that it wouldn't bruise because he had no idea of how he would explain it to his parents.

Ryuk could be heard laughing from behind them all. "Lucky you got Ankh to stop. If he had killed Raito, the Shinigami King would've surely have sentenced Ankh to death."

"Did you know about this?" She looked up at Ankh and saw him nod. "What were you thinking? Never put your life at risk again!" Hikari looked over at her boyfriend and felt bad for forgetting about what happened to him. "Oh Raito, are you okay?"

As she reached over to him, he slapped her hand away. "Stay away from me." Raito got up and ignored the hurt look on her face. "I think we should take a break from each other for a while."

"What?" Hikari couldn't believe what she was hearing, was he being serious? "You're joking right?"

"No."

"Why? Please don't do this." She couldn't help the tears that started to form in her eyes. How could so much change in so little time?

"I _need _L dead." Raito held onto her shoulders and gazed down at her. "I don't want this anymore than you do." He wiped away the few tears that began to fall down her cheeks. "You need time to think about your priorities. I'll be waiting for when you make the right choice."

As he turned away, she grabbed him and tried to pull him to her. "Don't leave me."

"Kill L."

It was a while before she replied and let him go. "I can't…" She went to pick up her bag and walked further into the graveyard away from him. When she next turned around, Hikari could no longer see him and her sobs became more audible.

"I should kill him." Ankh said aloud.

"No, I don't want anything bad to happen to him."

It would be easy, it should be easy. Hikari couldn't make herself do it, kill L. No matter how much it hurt to know that Raito never wanted to be with her. Would she give in, in the end? She hoped not, but there was no telling what she was capable of doing. He had been right, she had killed innocents before and it never worried her at the time. L shouldn't be any different. He was trying to catch them, trying to bring them both to justice.

Hikari came to a more secluded area in the graveyard and started to dig a hole with her hands. She would need to find a place to clean them before she got home in order to not arouse suspicion from the watchful eye of L. Taking out the Death Note, she removed a couple of pages, leaving them in her bag and placed the notebook in the hole before throwing the dirt back on top of it. If she had planned this ahead of time, Hikari would've found a bag to place it in. The next time she saw it again, she hoped it wouldn't be damaged by the dirt.

* * *

Hikari was on the train making her way to To-Oh for her first classes. Raito's classes began much later than hers so she didn't see him and she knew he wouldn't wake up early just to see her off. Not after their fight, if you could call it that. She had forgotten all about the cameras and microphones when she was at home last night. On the train she thought back to everything she did and said, hoping she hadn't said anything incriminating. She spent majority of the night in tears, thankful her parents decided to eat out, and cursed Raito a few times.

She was brought out of her inner thoughts by the sound of two school girls fighting. It was obvious that one was bullying the other. Hikari grimaced as she remembered back to her first killings, the feeling was still there. She hated it when people felt the need to put others down just to make themselves feel better. She took out a piece of the Death Note that she had kept in her bag and paused as her pen touched the paper. She looked back up at the girl, reading the name above her head, double checking it.

Why was it that she hadn't hesitated for a second and was about to write the name of this bully down? The girl was innocent, like anyone else on this train. Yet so was L, and she didn't even want to consider writing his name down. Without faltering a second time, Hikari wrote the girl's name down. _I am not a killer, I am not a killer_. She repeated the mantra in her head trying to convince herself it was true. Slowly she put the piece of paper away, watching the girl as she counted down the seconds.

The heart attack happened and was over almost as soon as it started. Hikari was lucky that the train had stopped at another station because she quickly stood up and left, not bothering to look back at what she caused. She could hear the screams of the passengers and quickened her pace. What she hadn't noticed was that a man wearing a trench coat, had watched her every move and saw everything that happened. He also left to follow her. Luckily it had been his stop anyway.

Hikari knew this wasn't her stop and she was still a few kilometres away from To-Oh. She couldn't just go back on the train. That would definitely look suspicious. Pretending to know where she was going, she left the station. A couple of minutes had passed when she had the strange feeling of someone following her. Stopping, she turned around a saw a man with glasses walking towards her. Hikari thought he would walk straight passed her, but instead he stood still upon reaching her.

"I saw what you did on the train." His eyes narrowed as he accused her.

Hikari folded her arms, raising one eyebrow. "You're delusional. I didn't do anything out of the ordinary."

"What did you write on that piece of paper?"

"It's my grocery list. I have to make dinner tonight." She didn't miss a beat in replying and if he hadn't been so sure of who she was, he would've probably believed her.

He watched as she walked away. "Where are you going?"

"Anywhere that is away from here. I should probably call a taxi to get to To-Oh on time…" She muttered the last bit mainly to herself than for him.

"You _did_ kill that girl. Why else would you need to get away?" He smirked when she turned around to glare at him.

"No one would believe you." She continued walking, trying to get as much space between them as she could.

"I have an office close to here." He looked at his watched and frowned. Although he didn't get in trouble for turning up late, he hated being off schedule even if it was only by a few minutes. "You can hide out there for a bit."

Hikari was at odds with herself. She knew it would be a bad idea, for all she knew this guy was a police officer. She looked up at Ankh and asked him for his opinion. The man just thought she was talking to the sky and didn't think much else on the matter. Ankh shrugged his shoulders, as long as the shinigami was around, no harm would come to her. She turned to him and smiled.

"It's nice to meet you Mikami Teru, I am Shimizu Hikari." She held out her hand and he shook it. Teru was surprised that Hikari even knew his name and it showed on his face, but she didn't bother with an explanation just yet. "So… where is this office of yours?"


	9. Love and War

**A/N: **The update is here, enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 9

_One page taken from the Death Note, or even a fragment of the page, contains the full effects of the note_.

Hikari's jaw dropped to the ground as she followed Teru into the foyer of one of the tallest buildings she had ever seen. The unprofessional way she gaped like a fish staring everywhere got her a lot of disapproving stares and there were many people inside. Some were standing in front of the reception area, others walking straight passed it to where the staircase and elevators were. Teru was one of the people to pass reception and into a sumptuous elevator. She continued to follow him with Ankh following her.

Once inside the elevator Hikari didn't know where to stand because it was so full, but Teru just grabbed her and squeezed her in beside him. Although it was roomy there were a lot of people wanting to get to the upper floors. She had to try not to laugh as people kept walking straight through Ankh, an up-tight woman ended up standing in the middle of him which caused him to just hang from the ceiling. The trip didn't take long and by the time they reach the fifth floor, half of the people had already left. Teru pushed her out into the capacious storey and walked over to where a petit blonde sat at a desk.

"Mr. Mikami you're later than usual." Her eyes lingered on Hikari, narrowing slightly. "Who is she?"

"This is Shimizu Hikari. We are going to be in my office and I don't want _any_ interruptions." Teru explained walking passed her.

"Uh… Mrs. Tanaka has her meeting in a few minutes…"

"Cancel it. I mean it when I say I don't want to be interrupted." Teru led Hikari into his office.

"Of course!" The woman's voice was dulled out by the closing of his door.

"What's your job?" Hikari asked, trying to keep the topic off what she knew he wanted to talk about.

"I am a criminal prosecutor." He took off his trench coat and placed it around the back of his chair. "You mentioned To-Oh, what are you studying there?"

"Law." She almost laughed at the coincidence that had occurred. In front of her was a man who had the career she was studying towards.

"Are you enjoying it?" Teru asked, he made no move to sit behind his desk and came back to stand in front of her.

"I don't know. Today was supposed to be my first day."

He gave her a faint smile. "Which brings us to why you got off the train early…" He left the sentence open hoping she would explain it herself, without any more questions.

Her eyes went to the shelf of documents behind his desk and lingered on a single framed certificate, a thin piece of paper to show his degree. "I am not who you think I am."

"You are Kira. You're a goddess among people." Teru said this with such vindication in his voice that Hikari almost gave in. "I saw you kill that girl." He added in a whisper.

"You're delusional, seeing things that weren't there. Maybe you need to get new glasses?" She refused to look him in the eyes and he noticed this.

"You wrote something on a piece of paper." He walked closer to her and she backed away until her back was against the wall.

"W-what are you doing?"

Hikari tried to stop him. She knew what he was trying to get. The piece of paper with the school girl's name on it was in the pocket of the hoodie she was wearing. Her arms were outstretched to try and prevent Teru from coming any closer to her, but his arms were longer. He was taller and stronger than her and could've easily overpowered her in the office. His fingers brushed against the piece of the Death Note that was now visible from the pocket and he backed away after seeing the shadow on the wall in front of him.

Teru turned around and yelled out when he saw Ankh. Hikari moved out of the way before he almost squashed her against the wall. His secretary came bursting through the door with a worried expression on her face which turned into confusion. All she could see was her boss staring at the ceiling and the girl he brought in with him with her mouth twisted in a smirk.

"Mr. Mikami, are you okay? I heard you shouting and thought something might be wrong."

He looked over at the blonde and back up at Ankh, he repeated this several times before replying. "I'm fine. What did I say about interrupting me?"

The lady bowed and closed the door without saying another word. Hikari couldn't help but laugh at the scared expression he wore.

"I guess there is no hiding it now, you might want to sit down." After Teru followed her instructions and sat on the chair behind his desk, she continued. "This is my shinigami Ankh…"

Hikari explained to him the Death Note, how she became in possession with it, some of the rules she had found out concerning it. He had asked to see the notebook for himself but she told him about it being buried. Instead she showed him the pieces of paper she had on her, telling him of how they still had the full effect of the Death Note. She would see his eyes flicker up to Ankh every now and then as if worried the shinigami would do something to hurt him.

"How did you know the girl's name? Or even my name?"

She closed the space between them so that their faces were centimetres apart. "I have the eyes of a shinigami." Hikari backed away and Teru could see her stare at the space above his head. Her eyes looked like they were focusing on something close so he knew she wasn't just staring at the shelf behind him. "I can see anyone's real name and life span."

"You're a goddess that no one would be able hide from." His tone showed awe as he marvelled over the idea.

Her eyes saddened as her thoughts turned to L and how he thought he could hide his real identity with various aliases. "I am not lying when I say I'm not Kira. Kira is my boyfr-" Hikari stopped herself from finishing the word. Her voice now matched her eyes, though she was thinking about someone completely different now. "I suppose he will be my _ex_-boyfriend now. He is the one they talk about on the news, the one that L is after."

"I can see how an unknown man will be hard to kill." Teru mused, it seemed that he had forgotten he was at work and how there was probably _work_ to do.

"I know L's identity but I refuse to kill him. He is innocent in all of this."

"Is he really?" He stood up from behind his desk and walked around it to be next to Hikari. "A man like L, I bet the rules don't apply to him. I'm sure he would do _anything_ to catch Kira. Is a person like him innocent? If you ask me, it makes him worse than Kira. At least Kira is doing what he is to make this world a better place." Teru took off his glasses and started wiping them. "It sounds like you really care about Kira. Are you going to just do nothing while L gets closer to catching him?"

"I don't know…" She started to wish she hadn't met Teru. He was making her question herself, something she didn't want to do. "I don't know." It was the only answer she had to all of his questions.

"I want to help out, with this Kira business."

"It's not really up to me to decide." Hikari started to feel uncomfortable, how did everything get jumbled up so suddenly?

"Here." He handed her his business card. "It has my details for when you make a decision. I can contact To-Oh and organise an assistant position for you, it would be similar to a part-time job an-"

"Please don't do anything until I've made a decision." She interrupted Teru not wanting to hear anything else. She was close to placing her hands over her ears and making childish noises just to block him out. Looking down at the card she gave him a half-hearted smile. "I will call you but I really think I should go now."

Hikari couldn't get out of the room fast enough and the blonde secretary looked at her weirdly as she passed. Forgetting about her phone still being on silent from the day before, she looked at it and saw there were a few missed calls and text messages, all from Raito. _What the hell? _Ankh laughed from behind her when she turned her phone off without giving it a second glance. On the way home her mind was filled with different possibilities and deep down she knew she had to make a final decision soon.

* * *

Early that morning while on the train to To-Oh, Hikari had read all of the messages from Raito, only to find that they were all asking about where she was. Apparently word had gotten around the campus quickly that the girlfriend of one of the student representatives had skipped the first day of school. There was also another message saying _Ryuuga_ had also_ coincidently_ skipped his first classes. _Oh great, more rumours, just what I need._ She didn't bother replying to any of them and made sure to turn her phone up just in case she did get an important call.

She felt proud of herself for having avoided Raito for the first part of the morning, but she knew it wouldn't last forever because they had the next class together. Ankh had decided to check on the Death Note so see if anyone had accidently dug it up. This meant Hikari was alone when she felt herself being pushed against the wall of the hallway.

"What the h-"

A kiss interrupted her outburst and she saw that Raito was in front of her. Hikari didn't need to see to be able to recognise those lips. Blind-folded, in a dark room or even under water, if his lips were on her, she would know. She gave in to him much too quickly for her liking, as his tongue probed her lips and he pressed himself against her. They ignored all the stares of passing students, as long as no professors passed, they would be safe. She found it strange he wasn't worried about his _goody-two-shoes_ image around everyone.

"Hey…" Raito breathed into her ear as a greeting, still close to her.

"W-what was that for?" Hikari was breathing heavily, trying to get oxygen circulating through her again. Her fingers rose to lightly touching her lips.

He kissed her cheek before replying. "I was worried, yesterday you weren't here when I was trying to find you and then you didn't reply to any of my messages."

"Why do you care? You broke up with me remember?"

"No I didn't." Raito started shaking his head, his fringe waving with the movement. "I may have said some harsh things the other day but I never broke up with you."

She stayed silent, avoiding his gaze. It still hurt, the idea of them not being together but not enough that she would burst into tears in such a public place.

"I love you Hikari." He whispered, bending down to place a soft kiss on the mouth of her stunned expression. "You were made for me, but in order for us to be together L needs to die. With him out of the way, nothing will stop us from winning this war."

"Give me time to think about it."

"That's all I'm ask-"

Raito was interrupted by the ringing of her phone. A random number was calling her but Hikari decided to answer it anyway. "Hello?"

"_Hikari! It's L. You're not in class are you? Am I interrupting something?"_ She smiled at the way Raito's features darkened. He was close enough to her that he would be able to hear the whole conversation.

"No, I'm not. I was actually just on my way there. You didn't interrupt anything." Hikari paused, but after hearing no reply she continued. "How come you haven't been going to your classes? That's bad for a student representative, don't you think?"

"_We both know it was just an act to get close to you. You should meet me at the park. I want to talk with you again."_

She laughed at the murderous gaze Raito was giving her phone. _Someone's jealous…_ "Like you said, I have classes I couldn't poss-"

"_Skip them like you did yesterday. I'll be at the park awaiting your arrival. Tell Raito I say 'hi', I know he is there, I can hear his breathing."_

Before she was able to tell whether L hung up or not, Raito grabbed her phone and pressed the 'end call' button himself. "Don't you even think about it Hikari." His voice was low and threatening.

"It will only be one more class…"

"That's not what I'm talking about." He still had her trapped against the wall and the hallway was now clear of students. The lectures would've already started. "I don't want you meeting up with him."

"I don't care about what you don't want." Hikari pushed against his chest so she could at least free herself from him and got her phone back while he loosely held onto it. "While I go and chat with L, why don't you spend this time making up a list of things I can and can't do?"

"Hikari, don't be li-"

"Bye Raito, I'll call you later."

This time she walked away from him, to stay out of his reach in case he tried to grab her. Hikari's steps got less sure the more she took. She didn't know whether to be pleased or disappointed that he didn't come chasing after her. Ankh was still nowhere to be seen and she needed to find him first before going to the park.


	10. Confession

**A/N: **I would like to thank all the reviews/alerts/favourites so far. :) I found this chapter the most difficult to write. Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 10

_After writing the cause of death, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds._

_He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not._ Hikari mutilated flower after flower going through the same phrases in her head, multiple times. Petals were falling in front of her feet and it was as if she were creating a path that anyone could follow. _Does he really love me? Or was he just saying it._

"Are you nervous?" Ankh asked, looking at the trail of petals behind them. He wondered what had gotten her to start picking the petals from the flowers.

"A bit," Hikari was silent as they made their way to the park. "Raito told me he loves me."

"Good thing I wasn't with you." The shinigami scoffed. "Do you think he only said it to get you to side with him?"

"Does that matter Ankh?" She stopped walking for a few seconds, letting the flower stalks fall to the ground in a heap. "I already made my decision before he told me."

She was glad that there were no children in the park because they would still be in school. It meant that whatever L wanted to talk to her about was going to happen with no interruptions. This suited Hikari just fine. She saw him on one of the benches at the corner of the park, or it would've been a corner, if parks had them. The bench was off to the side so if anyone did come through, they wouldn't be disturbed. He was holding onto some brown paper bags and it made her wonder what were inside them.

"It pleases me that you came." L held up the paper bags. "I brought cakes and cookies."

She sat down beside him, watching as he opened each bag. Ankh's mouth salivated when he saw two cookies in one of the bags. L had bought the same kind of cake that she ate the two other times they had been at a bakery together. Hikari smiled slightly at the sweet gesture, but then thought it was a bit creepy for him to remember. Maybe it was just a weird genius thing? He handed her a piece and started licking off the icing of his sweet dessert.

'This would be our third date Hikari." His lips upturned into a small smile before he licked off more icing.

"We're not dating L." She rolled her eyes at him.

"Raito made you sad the other day…" L paused to face her. "You could at least pretend for a tiny while."

Her eyes widen, but not in the surprise that he would've seen. Ever since her and Raito's first argument, she had honestly forgotten about the cameras and microphones still set up in her house, whenever she was at home. Hikari thought back to her previous room routines, thinking of anything incriminating she could've done. Nothing came to her mind. She remembered crying _a lot_, cursing Raito to hell, showering, changing clothes more showering and changing. A blush started appearing on her cheeks.

"How many cameras did you put in the house?" Hikari didn't want to know the answer but asked anyway.

L purposely waiting until he had finished his mouthful, a thumb made its way to his lips. "Enough so that there wouldn't be any blind spots." He thought it best not to say the exact amount, she would definitely freak out and it was something he didn't want to happen.

"How long have you been watching them?" She _really_ didn't want to know this answer.

"All the cameras were on 24 hour surveillance. The watching was split between all task force members but only I watched the footage when you were home." The pale skin of his face was covered in a pink-tinged blush. "You have nothing to be ashamed of Hikari. There is a saying of good things coming in small packages. I think you fit that description quite well."

Hikari moved her cake out of the way as she let her head fall to touch the wooden surface of the bench. "Don't ever tell me you are not a pervert, because I now have proof." She was mortified but glad that none of the other task force members would've seen her. "Are the cameras still in the house?"

"No, I had them taken out."

She lifted her head after hearing that. "Really? Why?"

L thought for a while before replying. "I don't know… the Kira investigation hasn't been moving forward since they have been put in. I've gotten the cameras in the Yagami residence taken out as well."

"So the investigation has been going slow?"

"Yes." He contemplated letting her know any more information. "My suspicions lead to either Raito or you being Kira. There isn't any hard evidence to confirm this, so the investigation hasn't been progressing."

"I may have something that could help you." The gloom in his eyes disappeared and interest took its place. "I… I am Kira."

L started choking on his cake and Hikari reached over to pat his back until he was breathing normally again. "Why would you admit that? Are you feeling okay?"

"L you are an intelligent guy, people call you a _genius_." She finished off her cake with ease and spoke as if they were talking about the weather. "You would've figured out the truth, I am just helping you out."

"What is Raito's part in all of this?" At the new information he received, L's head was buzzing with questions. He can arrest her later, right now he wanted to know more and Hikari seemed willing to give him what he wanted.

"He is innocent." Hikari met his gaze head on, but he couldn't quite believe her words.

He moved onto his cookie, giving the other one to her. "I think it would be safe to leave the idea of Raito being your partner-in-crime open. How are you able to kill with just a face and name?"

"There is a notebook called a _Death Note_. You write down the name of a person and picture their face in your mind." She was going to also mention about the shinigami eyes but thought against it because there could've been some criminals who hadn't been killed. Due to the media spelling their names wrong or some may have had aliases.

"Can I see this Death Note?" L held out his hand expectantly.

Hikari shook her head at him. "The Death Note is buried right now but…" She started searching through her bag. "I do have a piece from it. The effects are the same as any page from the notebook." She found the torn piece she was looking for and placed it in L's open hand.

As soon as the paper touched his skin, the shadow of Ankh was revealed to him and he looked up and wailed. Still holding onto the piece of the Death Note, his arms were in the air and he fell off the bench. It didn't help that in his crouched position, he had little balance to begin with. His owl-like eyes were even wider and if he had trouble sleeping before, there was no way he would be able to sleep now.

Ankh looked down at the detective. "He can see me now?" The shinigami didn't wait for a reply, already knowing the truth, and grabbed the uneaten cookie, shoving it in his mouth.

L looked back at the piece of paper in his hand and noticed that there was writing on it. Silently his eyes skimmed over each line, embedding it to his memory. If it were possible, his eyes would've widened even more. Still being on the ground he gazed up at Hikari and blinked a few times. "Why are you crying?"

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Even with the shinigami eyes, her tears were making her sight all blurry and she couldn't see him properly, only a smudge with dark hair. "Please know that I didn't want to do it."

"Kira won…" He made his way over to her and wiped away the tears that were streaming down her face. "But you're not Kira."

L dropped the paper onto her lap. It could've been by choice or because he had no control over his body's functions. He didn't speak after those last words and just looked at her with his dark eyes. Hikari couldn't take it anymore and looked away. She knew what was about to happen and scrunched up the piece of the Death Note that was on her lap. Her eyes were squeezed shut, she was a coward. L fell onto the grass and stayed motionless. It was lucky for them that no one had entered the park and there was no one to witness his death.

Hikari couldn't feel anything. Not the rain that started to fall. Or the way Ankh tried to get her to move under some cover. All she could see were his eyes. L's dark owl-like eyes were staring at her as if seeing into her soul. She would argue that there was no soul to be found, not after the crime she just committed. _You are a killer Hikari, you are the real Kira. _Slowly she opened the crinkled paper and read the same words he had read minutes earlier.

* * *

_Hikari tried to ignore Ankh as he laughed. She had just put her phone back in her bag and thought she heard someone calling out her name. Looking behind her, she saw Teru running out of the tall building he worked in. She didn't want to start running but she tried to walk as fast as possible to the train, away from him. He ended up catching her and pulled her in-between two buildings. It took a few minutes for him to collect himself and calm his breathing before speaking again._

"_Hikari, L won't stop until he catches Kira."_

"_Tell me something I don't know!" She shouted, glad they were away from any onlookers. "There has to be another way…"_

"_There is." Teru said, when he saw her look up at him with hopeful eyes, he continued. "You have to kill Kira instead."_

_Hikari turned away from him. "I can't do that." She knew _that_ action was more impossible than killing L._

"_Take out a piece of the Death Note and do it now."_

_She took her time. Kneeling on the ground and searching through her bag for a specific piece of paper. It was still the full size of a normal page, so to waste more time she slowly tore it, enough so she would be able to write a lengthy paragraph on it. Everything needed to be planned to make sure no one got caught. If she were to do this, it would have to be done correctly. Hikari was surprised that Teru wasn't tapping his foot at the amount of time she was taking. Didn't he want to get back to work?_

_He watched her go through her bag again, probably looking for a pen or pencil to use. His fingers lingered on the pen in his pocket. He would've offered it to her but somehow knew she was purposely taking her time. Obviously this was something she didn't want to do. Even though she hadn't agreed to get him to help her with the Kira business, he felt obliged to. Not only to keep Kira safe, but also for Hikari's safety._

"_Just give me a few minutes to think about what to do. I can't just kill him wherever he is now."_

_Teru didn't question her, if she was agreeing to do this, it was all that mattered. Silently he watched how her eyes narrowed, staring at the ground. The gears were turning inside her brain. Hikari would make a good criminal prosecutor, he was sure of it, he just needed her to accept the proposition he gave her._

"_Okay, I've got it." Using the wall of the building behind her, Hikari scribbled onto the piece of paper at a speedy rate. She didn't have long until it would be too late._

* * *

_4th April 2007 – L Lawliet: Heart attack. At 12:30 pm he will give an order  
for the cameras and microphones to be removed from both Kira suspects'  
houses. At 12:58 pm he will ring up his prime female Kira suspect and ask  
her to meet him in a secluded area of his choice. He will make sure no one  
follows him when he makes his way to the secluded area. After he hears her  
confess, he will ask her questions until touching a piece of the Death Note.  
After seeing the shinigami, he will read the note and die 40 seconds later._

Hikari put the piece of the Death Note inside her bag and took out her phone, dialling Raito's number. She only had to wait for it to ring once before he picked up. She figured he decided to skip class as well.

"_Hikari, when you said you would call me, I didn-"_

"L is dead."

_All humans, without exception, will eventually die. Once dead, they can never come back to life._

* * *

**A/N: **Please put your torches and pitchforks away! :/ I want everyone to know that this had been planned before I even started writing the first chapter. I had seriously considered changing the storyline because of all the support Hikari was getting but made the decision that the story wouldn't be able to properly move forward without L's death. Also some more sad news, the next chapter is the last chapter for SS. I do have ideas/plans for a sequel, yay or nay? There is no poll but reviews count as votes! :D

The last two sentences are from the thirteenth manga: _How to Read_ and belongs to Tsugumi Ohba.


	11. Right Choice?

**A/N: **Here it is, the final chapter. I do hope this last one does the story justice. Enjoy! x

* * *

Susanoo's Stratagem - 11

_The human whose name is written in this note shall die._

"_L is dead."_

Raito stayed silent, getting over how Hikari had rung him when he wasn't expecting it and also because his brain needed to process the words she said. He was in his room having chosen to go home instead of turning up late to his class. _Is she telling me the truth?_ As soon as the question was thought he dismissed it just as quickly. She sounded upset on the phone and he knew she wouldn't lie to him about something this important. His smile grew the more he realised that the famous detective was dead. _Dead_, not breathing and not able to ruin his plans for the new world he was on his way to create. Hikari would be by his side in this world, which made everything a whole lot better and worth it.

"_Meet me by the graveyard."_

He was left listening to the tone of her hanging up. She didn't even let him congratulate her. Raito would need to buy her flowers, although the idea was vomit-inducing, girls liked flowers, right? It would be fitting, since they were about to be meeting in a cemetery and with L's recent death. His grin was so large it rivalled Ryuk's twisted one. His fingers were twitching, the Death Note would be in his hands and he would be able to kill criminals without having to pace himself.

"Let's go Ryuk. I don't want to keep Hikari waiting long."

The shinigami was laughing he didn't think the human girl had it in her but Ryuk had been proven wrong. "This makes for an interesting turn of events."

Before going to the cemetery, Raito stopped by a small flower shop which was on the way. Inside he browsed through the different varieties and colours of flowers before seeing a lone blue rose that cost more than a half a dozen red roses. He didn't know whether it had been genetically modified or just dyed and he didn't care to ask. After reading the note attached to it, he bought the flower and left. Ignoring the insults Ryuk sent him as he walked on. He saw Hikari and Ankh standing at the graveyard entrance.

It was raining and she was without an umbrella. Raito could see the way her top was sticking to her skin. He was glad she wasn't wearing anything white because it would've turned see-through and the last thing he wanted was a bunch of hormone driven guys staring at her, but was he any different? Hikari turned to him and her eyes were lifeless, as if she had been the one to get killed and not the one who did the killing. Seeing her down made it seem as if every raindrop that dripped onto her was draining part of her. Something pulled at his heart upon realising he didn't want to see her sad, ever again.

"I got this for you." Raito held the umbrella above her as he gave her the rose. He didn't bother greeting her shinigami. "I know you didn't want to kill him, but I want to thank you."

"It was either him or you and at the time I couldn't _ever_ think of writing your name down." Hikari read the note that was wrapped around the stem, laughing humourlessly. "Is this meant for you or me?"

_Give to the unattainable one you yearn for._

"For you." He bent down intending to kiss her lips but she turned her head away and he kissed her cheek instead. "Shall we get the Death Note now?"

"Sure."

Hikari was quiet during their trip through the gravestones. It looked like she was following Ankh because he was in the lead. Was she traumatised after what she'd done? Raito couldn't be certain. He held onto her hand and she looked down between them at their interlinked fingers. A ghost of a smile appeared over her features and she gazed up at him when thinking he wasn't looking at her. She blushed when they made eye contact and quickly looked away. They stopped in front of a mound of freshly dug up dirt, the rain had turned it to sludge. There was no way he was getting on his knees to dig for the Death Note.

"Coward." Hikari whispered, handing him the rose and she bent down to retrieve the notebook. "I've killed a man and you can't even get your hands dirty. Now I look like a mess."

It was true, all of it. He wouldn't admit either out loud, but she _did_ look like a mess. Her jeans and hands were covered in mud. If anyone were to walk by, Hikari would be looking suspicious of some sort of grave robbing. The Death Note was in one of her hands and it resembled death now. The edges were tattered as if some insects had tried to nibble at it. Raito tried to control his nose from scrunching up. _He_ was supposed to use this book to kill criminals, a book that now looked like an overused bible. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all? He _was_ going to become a God when the new world is created.

"Come back to my place, you can wear some of my clothes while my mother washes yours." He held out a hand to her, which she took after wiping her dirt covered hand on her jeans. "I will be able to use to the whole Death Note now, right?"

"Sure."

It was her answer to everything Raito had said. All Hikari cared about at that moment was getting out of the public place, she didn't like the way people were staring at her. She felt as if she had a neon sign above her head that alerted every person of her having killed someone. Never having felt this way before, she knew she wouldn't be using the Death Note out of haste for a long time. She was now a murderer and on the same level as the ones the guy next to her considered evil.

Sayu greeted them at the door when they arrived at the Yagami household. "Hikari! What happened to you?"

She looked down at her messy self while taking off her shoes. "I tripped over. Lucky Raito found me when he did. I would probably look a lot worse." Hikari smiled at the younger sibling.

"Raito does seem happier now, even with this horrible weather." Sayu started rambling on. "He has been moody all week. I had thought you two broke up. You are still going out I hope?"

"Of course we are." Raito said, grabbing Hikari's hand and taking her to the stairs. She tried her best not to get any mud on the floor. "Sayu, can you get Mum? Hikari is going to need her clothes washed."

As they ascended the staircase, they heard Sayu calling out for her mother. Inside his room, Raito grabbed some clothes and gave them to Hikari. He expected her to leave the bedroom and get changed in the bathroom but to his surprise she unclothed and dressed right in front of him. Hikari didn't mind that they were watching. Ankh used to take baths with her when she was younger and he was around her a lot, so that shinigami seeing her nude was nothing new. Ryuk had the decency to turn around and cackled at Raito. Who loudly gulped while removing his tie and undoing the top few buttons of his shirt, relieving his neck which suddenly felt constricted.

"Lucky the cameras are gone."

Hikari allowed herself to smirk at him. "L already saw me naked when I was at home." She quickly went to her bag to find the piece of paper which had L's death on it, after noticing Raito's darkening mood. "The cameras are gone because of this."

He took the note and read over it a few times. "When did you write this out?"

"Yesterday."

"So earlier today at Uni, the call from L and…" Raito trailed off, all the pieces were slowly coming together in his mind. All her actions suddenly made more sense. "You wrote this when you had skipped classes."

"Yes." Hikari thought it would be best not to mention meeting Teru and the man's part in her decision. She didn't think Raito would like it very much, especially with someone else having the knowledge of what the Death Note was capable of.

There was a knock on his bedroom door and Sachiko picked up the dirty clothes on the floor to put them in the washing machine. Hikari thanked her for the kindness and Raito went in the bathroom to try and clean the Death Note. Coming back in the room, the notebook was looking much cleaner and nicer but still was tacky around the edges. She sat on the bed while he went to his desk, booting up his computer to start writing lists and lists of names of criminals he felt needed to die. She took the blue rose from the desk and was staring at it, waiting for her clothes to be washed and dried.

* * *

Hikari had left the Yagami residence soon after getting her clothes back and having dinner, which Sachiko insisted on her staying to eat. She was on her way home with Ankh walking beside her, making her feel safe even though the sun had set over an hour ago. In one hand she held her cell phone and in her other hand was the business card Teru had given her. She couldn't see the numbers on the card at all in the dark, but her mind wasn't on the call she was about to make, it was on what happened in Raito's room earlier that evening.

"_I think we should live together." Raito's writing had ceased and he turned around in his chair to face her._

"_What?" Hikari was brought back to reality and looked at him confused. "Don't you think it is a little early for that?"_

"_No I don't. I love you and you love me. We were made for each other." He got up and sat next to her on the bed. "I want you to be by my side forever. The sooner we make it official, the better."_

_She shook her head as he took her hands in his. He had removed the rose and placed it behind him on the bed. "I think we should concentrate on our studies before taking the next step."_

"_Moving into our own place isn't that big of a step."_

"_Think of all the responsibilities we would have to take on." Hikari tried to look into his earnest gaze but found the floor much easier to look at as she continued talking. "There would be rent and bills to pay-"_

"_My father said he would handle all the money issues." Raito interrupted, rendering her argument useless._

"_Give me time to think about it." Those had been the same words she said to Teru. "It's late, I should be heading home." She quickly kissed him on the cheek before picking up her bag and leaving his room. She had purposely left the blue rose on his bed where Raito had put it and also didn't bother saying goodbye to him._

"Does it make me a bad person for doubting my feelings for him?"

"No." Ankh replied quickly and then added. "It's about time."

"Do you think I should take Mr. Mikami up on this job offer?" Hikari was unsure about a lot of things. It had been less than a month since she quit her last part-time job and enjoyed the free time, though this offer could be seen more as work experience, which would help when she did finish her studies.

The shinigami stayed silent for a bit. "With as much as you told him, it would be dangerous to leave him alone. If you took up his offer, you could keep an eye on him."

It was all the convincing she needed and she pressed the buttons of the numbers Ankh read out for her, since she couldn't see them. The phone rang for a while and Hikari thought that he wouldn't pick up at all, just when she was going to cancel the call, she heard his voice.

"_Mikami Teru speaking."_

"Mr. Mikami, it is Shimizu Hikari. I hope I'm not interrupting anything?"

"_No… I just finished up at the gym. How are you feeling?"_

She paused for a second, not sure how to reply to the question. "It is complicated. If you are too busy I can ring back at a more convenient time…"

"_I'm on my way home, nothing major. What is it you wanted?"_

"The opportunity you gave me yesterday. I want to accept it." As she waiting for him to talk, Hikari started having her doubts. Only a day had passed but was she already too late?

"_That's great. I will sort everything out and get back to you."_

"Okay, that sounds good." Hikari was about to hang up until she decided to be polite. "Uh… I'll talk with you later then. Bye."

Her trip home didn't take much longer after the call ended. Her parents weren't downstairs which meant they either were already in bed or hadn't even left work. Ever since she started To-Oh University, they worried less about where she was. She climbed the stairs to her bedroom two at a time and finally noticed that Ankh wasn't following her. Hikari shrugged her shoulders and assumed that he was in the kitchen having a snack. Her bag was thrown in the corner and she jumped onto her bed and stared at the ceiling.

Her gaze went from the ceiling, to her bag and over to her desk before she got up and took out another page of the Death Note she still had in there. Raito may still be in possession of the actual book, but she had taken out enough pages from before she buried it, to last her a bit. Hikari only had one name she wanted to write down and she made sure to picture his face in her mind clearly. _I wasn't strong enough. _Taking a pen, she placed it on the page and started writing.

_Yagami..._

"Ankh!" Her hand stopped as she called out for her shinigami.

When there was no reply, she got up and started searching for him. The first room she checked was the kitchen, but he wasn't in there. The milk was still sealed shut and the new bag of cookies hadn't been opened either. Hikari found this strange, but continued her search throughout the whole house. For half an hour she looked around the house, even in her parent's bedroom which was also empty. Bathroom, bedrooms, lounge, kitchen, outside; they were all empty and didn't contain the shinigami she was looking for.

"Ankh you can come out now, this isn't funny!" She tried to laugh but was honestly scared.

There was still no reply. Hikari thought back to the last time she remembered seeing him. It was before her call to Teru, after that she had assumed he was behind her or flying above her. Not wanting any of it to be real, she carried on searching every single room in the house and even spent a long time outside in the garden. There was nothing. The old scaly, skirt wearing shinigami was gone and she had no idea where he was.

For the first time in just over thirteen years, Hikari felt truly alone.

* * *

**A/N: **That's it! Story finished! I just want to thank everyone who has read it and all the reviewers/favouriters/ alerters. There _is_ a sequel being planned and I am hoping to have the first chapter for that up in a couple of weeks. The first chapter has already been planned and it will most likely be longer than normal and then after that all other chapters will be original SS length. :D


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